What you need to know Android developer

Literally a month ago, a topic with approximately the same name appeared on Habré and was dedicated to novice programmers, chewing on some features of development for this platform. Even then, I thought about writing this article, since it seemed that it was better to approach the start of work in a new environment from the other side. Namely, with more philosophical. In order not to fill the bumps it is always better to use someone else's experience, which I share with you.

Last summer, quite unexpectedly, I acquired a Nexus One smartphone. He was terribly pleased with his purchase and spent a long time picking his software stuff, admiring the forethought of the system. Since I have been a game developer for a long time, I wanted to make something of my own for this device. After a fairly thorough study of the platform, reading special literature, the first swallows appeared in the form of various screen decorations. It should be noted that despite the fact that I never seriously worked with java, the language seemed easily mastered and intuitive. The documentation from Google helped a lot. All this in aggregate inspired hopes for the successful development of the first serious project, the design of which has already begun to take shape from the first steps of studying Android. He added enthusiasm to the fact that after a trial of laying out an application with live wallpaper on the market for the first day, it was downloaded by almost a thousand users. Thoughts of commercial projects and "easy money" spun in my head.

It was a lyrically optimistic preamble, and now we come to reality.

Monetization of Android applications

Here, first of all, you need to touch on the "owner" of the system to Google. The ideology of this company is sympathetic, since most of its projects are open and free. It seems fine, but ... And here we will have to compare this company with another well-known. A Google competitor in the market of mobile platforms Apple meets its user with the first question: “And show me your credit card, dear. Thank you, now welcome! ”What meets us Google:“ Come soon, we have so much free! ”As a user, this is good news. But what will the developers say when they see a client who is not used to paying? Serious developers, localizing one of their applications from another platform and summarizing the results, will make an appropriate assessment and will work with those who pay. That is why on the main page of the Android Market the same applications flash for several months. And the market itself, with the almost complete absence of moderation, turned into a mountain of rubbish, to find in which something serious is an unrealistic task. Plus, you can easily pick up some muck with different options for the consequences.
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But not everything is so gloomy. Since there are few serious companies in the market, individual developers occupy a free niche. And this we are with you. As for a large company there is a penny, then for small developers it is enough for “bread and butter”. For example, the main buyers of my games, like most, are Americans. Next come the Germans and, surprisingly, the Russians. Yes, in spite of all speculation about "lovers of freebies" and "mentality." Although one event, which I will discuss below, the percentage of the domestic buyer reduced, nevertheless, I did not become less respected for my honesty.

I will share a positive observation, which can be useful to many novice developers. If you make paid games mostly of the same genre, then often buyers take your entire “kit”. Sometimes immediately, sometimes after testing one of the games.

Suppose you have found the genre that you think should be profitable and decided to release a commercial program. Your development becomes popular even in such a not very popular section "Paid applications". Of course, your application will be noticed ... and hacked. You will feel this immediately as soon as foreign schoolchildren do not bother to ask them by mail how to download without a card. Of course, the “protection” against Google with the beautiful name LVL was installed, but breaking it is much easier than building it.

We type the name of the program in Google (oh my God, and he is with them!) And the first link leads to the hacked apk-file. You can try to wrestle with the administrators of pirated sites, but not you are the first of the authors whose letters will be ignored. One of my games in this way came to our domestic site w3bsit3-dns.com. It would be naive to think that if I ask the hacked file itself and the link to it to be removed from its pages, the administration will meet me. But it was not there! If the moderator for the solution of the question sent me to the administrators, then they just sent me. Silently. Turning to one, then to another, having received an ignore response, I realized that this is a policy towards the authors, and the list “... which is forbidden on the site” is made up for the eye. The topic is still there and is active.

If you do not like this state of affairs, then there is a way out - free applications with ads. I will not disclose this topic, as it has been described many times. Personally, I use AdMob, although the money for 500 thousand ad impressions per day from one application is very moderate. Perhaps one and the same is unattractive advertising, so that users do not seek to leave the screen with the game, press the banner. In most cases, the profits from a free Android application with embedded advertising are much higher than from paid ones. Although you should always take into account the specifics and genre of your program.

Promotion of the application

So, you published your creation and there was an acute question about its promotion. I admit honestly, no one directly addressed me to any person with a proposal to promote the game. But according to other developers, this kind of activity thrives on a grand scale. Just look at the top ten different categories and become disheartened by the programs presented there. Some of them are not even properly decorated, but the number of downloads is amazing. Many of them may simply not run, but if we look at the reviews, we see there are numerous delights, with alternating curses of those who have led. Such enthusiasm, compiled "under the blueprint," you can read a lot in Russian, which speaks of support by advertisers of different localizations. What is there to hide, this is sinning and Apple appstore. But if the latter have any incentives to screen out dishonest behavior, then Google does not give such a reason for optimism.

System flaws and glitches

The main problem of the Android market, like any Google service: if you suddenly have a problem and you don’t find a way out of it, no one will help you. Your emails will be answered by robots with a link to the FAQ and forum items. The aid forum is a feature of the corporation “the rescue of the drowning is the work of the drowning themselves”. If a miracle happens and a Google employee appears in the subject, then do not wait for a constructive answer.

But when buyers have problems with the market, irritated letters will rush to the developer, as the only living character in the program acquisition process. One of my suggestions was not lucky when it was published on the eve of system failures. The buyers could not download the already paid application and with anger ruined my rating, which later with difficulty somehow managed to get through 3+.

Perhaps the most common problem is an invalid card (expired, no money, etc.). Such attempts to pay can be up to half of the total number of sales, and they are marked with a red warning that the buyer is allegedly notified of the invalidity of the transaction. I do not know how he was informed, but judging by the constant attempts to repeat the purchase many times, this was done directly, “not obvious.” After such unsuccessful actions, the buyer gives you a low rating and writes a letter of despair “the game does not start.” All this affects the overall impression of the market. And it would seem that Google is stopping to solve this problem. Perhaps he is trying to solve, but in some strange way: since the beginning of the year, paid applications are downloaded well for a very long time, discouraging the desire to even get involved in paid programs. The saying “they wanted the best” is not only suitable for our country.

Fragmentation

Last fall, a series of articles appeared that the fragmentation of Android is a myth. Most likely they were designed for those developers who are thinking about moving to the platform. But only after a close acquaintance, you understand that this is not a myth, but the curse of Android. It would seem to ask your friends a couple of smartphones from different manufacturers, test, and you will be confident in the success of your application. It was not there. It turns out the phones of the same manufacturer can be completely "dissimilar." In this regard, the vaunted Samsung succeeds, possessing a unique combination of excellent hardware and completely buggy software. I also include the firmware for these phones, which seems to be assembled by different companies.

Suppose you have three phones Samsung Galaxy x, Samsung Galaxy xx, Samsung Galaxy xxx. You are testing the game - on x and on xx, everything goes fine, but on xxx it does not start. Through long attempts find out the reason. For example, xxx does not suit the format of compression of sound (strange, but it happens, apparently it hangs at the time of decompression, when there is not enough memory). We change the compression, the game started to run on xxx, but stopped working on xx. Finally, you are friends with all three phones with your game and publish it with a clear conscience. From time to time you will receive feedback that the game does not start on one of the above phones. But since these are isolated cases and you cannot control the problems of telephone numbers of specific users, we ignore the messages. And now comes the new firmware. At first, users are happy and then discover that a number of applications either stopped running or do not work correctly. In my case, it turned out to be that “flawless” x, on which everything was excellent from the very beginning. Most developers simply make exceptions in the market for such phones, but this is not an option.

Few conclusions

In my opinion, the main problem of Android is Google. Although I, like many, have sympathy for this corporation (I repeat), but what it does (or rather does not do) with its brainchild leads to sad reflections.

Google reminds me of the island of socialism in the business world. A certain model of the USSR with flights into space, Olympic champions and other victories. The oil for Google is advertising. The resulting profit, directed to the purchase of new projects, is lost nowhere. Because no one is responsible for anything. It would seem that Android should bring good profits to the corporation (as well as feeding the developers). But do they need these "pennies" compared to the cash flow from advertising? Most likely, another owner, for whom the market would determine a serious share in the profits, would change this state of affairs, brought order to the software and tightened the certification of the devices. And everyone would have won.

And to a developer who stands in the way of choosing a mobile application development system, I would recommend where it is already debugged.

The topic does not claim to ultimate truth. This is all my personal impressions. Success story can be found everywhere, even in the world. Here is a slightly different vision of Android in general.