Musings on why Google will benefit more then Apple with its application market/store
This is totally my own opinion and I don’t expect anyone to agree, but I feel that Google will do much better with Android Market then Apple does with its app store. I believe this because Google intentionally created a mediocre (albeit functional) end user experience for the Android mobile platform whereas Apple slaved long hours perfecting the iPhone’s core applications. This is by no means meant to diminish the effort by Google’s engineers, whom I greatly respect, nor do I have any proof for the previous statement (I’m sure the Google developers had many a long night and weekend), but if you will give me a couple moments of your precious time I will lay down why I believe this is a better position for Google to take.
By developing a mediocre set of core applications the Google engineers give the development community more chance to improve the product. Therefore more developers/start-ups will rise to the occasion and more diversity of UI’s will be introduced for the Android devices. By core applications I mean the software provided on the base Android device, the dialer, front end for the contact list, the photo viewer, and so on. And all these 3rd party applications, whether they are replacements or extensions will be sold via the Android Market which of course benefits Google because, although it hasn’t been announced, I’m sure Google will take some small cut of each sale. Therefore, by not being as sleek as the average Apple device, Google is almost screaming for some smart designer/developer to spend their time and create kick ass replacements for the default Android base applications. All Google has to do is deliver a fully functional development SDK/API for the Android device and a means to market third party applications, and almost everything else is free for Google, the development community does the rest. Plus, Google doesn’t have to spend as much development time making the perfect set of apps, all it needs to do is provide just enough for the devices to be useful.
Whereas Apple (I have little proof of this and could be completely wrong) has not allowed for the core applications of the iPhone, the dialer, contact management front end, media player, and so forth to be altered; Apple only allows 3rd party developers the ability to create add on applications. This still profits Apple and its development community, but I believe 3rd party developers for the Android devices have much more freedom, thus much more room for making money from the platform. And this benefits both the development community and Google, in many ways.
If I really thought hard I could come up with a conclusion stating something like, Apple is improving it’s brand whereas Google is extending it’s reach, but I’m not a marketing guy, and I’d probably be wrong with that as well!
And, to all the Google engineers and other developers of the Open Handset Alliance, HUGE applause, gratitude, and job well done! This is by no means diminishing the HUGE amount of work you’ve done to make the Android device possible, THANKS!! As a developer who hopes to make some money as a third party developer, I wish T-Mobile and the rest if the OHA all the luck in the world for its launch of the G1!
Am I completely full of it??
