Most people with a cell phone own a Smart phone. Most people with a smartphone own an Android phone. This is mainly because of the huge number of phones with the Android OS.
What is interesting is that Android phones, like computers, let you install apps from any sources. This makes them open to digital distribution platforms of all kind from well known distributors such as Amazon, to underground markets such as Aptoide.
In this article, we will focus on Google's own market now called the Play Store (before it was simply called Android Market), but you'll see that I bring the Pros and Cons of multiple markets.
The fastest growing market has reached over 600,000 unique apps (NOT counting Tablets vs Phone apps and Lite Vs Paying apps as multiple apps). It has all the apps and games you need and aside from just a few iOS exclusives apps, you've got pretty much everything that is available on there, or something similar on the Play Store. The fact that it is fairly open for anyone to develop and bring their apps and games to Android means the library of original IPs, big commercial titles or simply emulators from Mame, ScummVM to the PSX and N64 are all there.
There's also an app for that!
Every time an Apple fans says : "There's an App for that" I usually answer, is there an app for downloading torrents directly to you phone ? They stay speechless. For gaming purposes, I actually hooked a phone with HDMI out to a TV, and used an app that lets other phones connect as different game pads. We could be a bunch of people playing emulators with Virtual game pads on our phones. On Android, the platform is open enough to do pretty much everything, and if you root your phone (something that is not prohibited, but still voids the warranty) you get access to even more apps goodness.
Free for All?
More than 65% of the apps and games are free. This has two positive effects. First, you can make pretty much everything with your phone without spending a single penny. The second one is that it brings competition so prices have to be low or promotions get really aggressive. I paid for Dead Space and Sims 3 for a big 0.10$; Angry Birds, completely free. Galaxy On Fire 2 was originally 10$ on iPhone, it dropped to 1$, but still is free on Android (but requires a Tegra chipset).
Account driven, no matter the number of devices.
Android is on so many devices that this makes value to everything bought. There are many game consoles in the making, from room consoles like Evo 2 or Ouya, micro computers like FXI CottonCandy, or handheld gaming devices such as the Archos GamePad (that is actually a 7 inch tablet with full physical controls and mapping tool) or the Android MG, you know your games can follow you on any future devices you buy. In addition, the market easily handles multiple accounts on one device. So when those consoles do hit the market, the whole family will be able too share their whole library. That's always a plus for the wallets.
There are so many games and apps that it is hard to find that particular app amongst all of them. While with greater skills you can find games and apps that suit your needs, you often have to refer to external sources to see what you might have missed. And for the average users, they'll be missing out on a lot of cool apps for sure, like Crackle that lets you watch free movies and TV shows, and is totally legit.
Where is that app I purchased... You bought a new device and want to load that game you've been playing last year but don't remember the name... Well you can browse your downloaded apps but you can't search or filter them. I have to browse a list of over 200 hundred apps, most of them were free ones I wanted to test, to find that one app I forgot the name but knew I bought.
Clones are worse than zombies.
The fact that almost anyone can publish on the Play Store also leads to having a bunch of apps and games that are quite similar. While it gives you choice it also opens the door to poor quality and crapware.
Many devices, many problems.
The different screen size and resolution, the different processor and RAM amount, the different internal or external memory are all factors that make games work on one device but not another and can lead to instability and phone crash... Not cool.
Many markets? Needs management!
If you use multiple markets (ie: the Amazon and Android store), you might want to keep notes of what was bought and where.
Selling point.What is interesting is that Android phones, like computers, let you install apps from any sources. This makes them open to digital distribution platforms of all kind from well known distributors such as Amazon, to underground markets such as Aptoide.
In this article, we will focus on Google's own market now called the Play Store (before it was simply called Android Market), but you'll see that I bring the Pros and Cons of multiple markets.
Pros:
Open for business!The fastest growing market has reached over 600,000 unique apps (NOT counting Tablets vs Phone apps and Lite Vs Paying apps as multiple apps). It has all the apps and games you need and aside from just a few iOS exclusives apps, you've got pretty much everything that is available on there, or something similar on the Play Store. The fact that it is fairly open for anyone to develop and bring their apps and games to Android means the library of original IPs, big commercial titles or simply emulators from Mame, ScummVM to the PSX and N64 are all there.
There's also an app for that!
Every time an Apple fans says : "There's an App for that" I usually answer, is there an app for downloading torrents directly to you phone ? They stay speechless. For gaming purposes, I actually hooked a phone with HDMI out to a TV, and used an app that lets other phones connect as different game pads. We could be a bunch of people playing emulators with Virtual game pads on our phones. On Android, the platform is open enough to do pretty much everything, and if you root your phone (something that is not prohibited, but still voids the warranty) you get access to even more apps goodness.
Free for All?
More than 65% of the apps and games are free. This has two positive effects. First, you can make pretty much everything with your phone without spending a single penny. The second one is that it brings competition so prices have to be low or promotions get really aggressive. I paid for Dead Space and Sims 3 for a big 0.10$; Angry Birds, completely free. Galaxy On Fire 2 was originally 10$ on iPhone, it dropped to 1$, but still is free on Android (but requires a Tegra chipset).
Account driven, no matter the number of devices.
Android is on so many devices that this makes value to everything bought. There are many game consoles in the making, from room consoles like Evo 2 or Ouya, micro computers like FXI CottonCandy, or handheld gaming devices such as the Archos GamePad (that is actually a 7 inch tablet with full physical controls and mapping tool) or the Android MG, you know your games can follow you on any future devices you buy. In addition, the market easily handles multiple accounts on one device. So when those consoles do hit the market, the whole family will be able too share their whole library. That's always a plus for the wallets.
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| We'll talk about those devices in later posts. |
Cons :
Getting lost is easy.There are so many games and apps that it is hard to find that particular app amongst all of them. While with greater skills you can find games and apps that suit your needs, you often have to refer to external sources to see what you might have missed. And for the average users, they'll be missing out on a lot of cool apps for sure, like Crackle that lets you watch free movies and TV shows, and is totally legit.
Where is that app I purchased... You bought a new device and want to load that game you've been playing last year but don't remember the name... Well you can browse your downloaded apps but you can't search or filter them. I have to browse a list of over 200 hundred apps, most of them were free ones I wanted to test, to find that one app I forgot the name but knew I bought.
Clones are worse than zombies.
The fact that almost anyone can publish on the Play Store also leads to having a bunch of apps and games that are quite similar. While it gives you choice it also opens the door to poor quality and crapware.
Many devices, many problems.
The different screen size and resolution, the different processor and RAM amount, the different internal or external memory are all factors that make games work on one device but not another and can lead to instability and phone crash... Not cool.
Many markets? Needs management!
If you use multiple markets (ie: the Amazon and Android store), you might want to keep notes of what was bought and where.
While having lots of free apps and games on the market, we could wonder how can someone make money. There are many ways to achieve this goal, but the one commonly used on android is publicity. Banner ads are pretty much everywhere.
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