FINALLY imported the Kindle Fire - should I also grab an Android phone?

mynameisacemynameisace Hull, UKMember Posts: 2,484
edited April 2012 in Business and Marketing Theory
Hey guys,

I finally managed to import a Kindle Fire to the UK and should be coming this week on a pirate ship to be left in smugglers cove.

Whilst I'm going Android crazy, should I go ahead and buy myself an Android phone? I was thinking possibly the Galaxy S2 - but with that being the flagship model, would it be better getting myself a less powerful device?

I know that a lot of people struggle to make money on the Android store, but I am thinking about releasing the games I develop for free on Android to build up my brand/get my apps out there will social networking features like Tweet Sheet, etc. to get my name about. When we get ad support for Android, I will maybe look to monetizing the Android apps, or just leave them free as an advert for my iPhone apps.

What are people's thoughts?

Ace

Best Answer

  • MantoManto Posts: 796
    Accepted Answer
    I don't know about buying Android phone. I bought Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Acer Iconia Tab A100. And the iPhone retina resolution looks great on both devices. I don't think you should buy Galaxy S2 because your apps may run great on it but not on less powerful devices.

    I have all the same apps and prices on Android Market as I have on App Store. My Android sales have been 10% of the App Store sales.
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Answers

  • MarkOnTheIronMarkOnTheIron Member Posts: 1,447
    Your smugglers surely took their time :)

    As for another Android device I was also thinking on taking one. I will go hunting for it next week but I won't probably get one of the latest models. I will try to get an older one it will be less expensive and it will give a better benchmark for a wider range of devices. I will probably go for a Samsung one since on Google Play statistics it seems to be the most used one.

    As for how to price your apps it's true that Android users are less willingly to depart from their money but at the moment for my games I think I use the same price as the ones on the AppStore. Then when I will finish porting all of them I will decide depending on the overall result. So far the Amazon Appstore holds quite well for paid apps, while on Google Play it's a lot harder.

    The thing that I noticed is the lack of new releases lists on both store. They have something like the N&N section that list only some of the new games but I wasn't able to find a list that shows all the newly released games.

    Anyway, good luck! :)

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  • beefy_clyrobeefy_clyro Member Posts: 5,394
    Yeh im not sure what to do about the Android market. Its not really a paid market and so hard to cater for the masses as so many different spec'ed devices! I released one of my simpler games on Android (has a bit of physics to it) and the performance on my girlfriends Galaxy 3 is pretty damn poor. I may change them all to free, add the tweet sheet like you mention and try to get a bit of a name that way.

    The Fire is a lovely little device but being in the UK is really limited to what you can do on it. I strictly use it for testing and thats it. Has some annoying quirks but screen is pretty decent in fairness. My biggest annoyance is that there are no volume buttons on the outside and the power button can easily be pressed by accident .. I'm sure you'll see what i mean when you get yours.
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  • LiquidGameworksLiquidGameworks Anchorage, AKMember, Sous Chef Posts: 956
    @mynameisace I wouldn't bother buying another Android device. There are so many variations on the android market, and it really is a terrible market. Amazon is great, and Nook is better. And you only need the Fire to test with to be accurate for both.
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  • mynameisacemynameisace Hull, UKMember Posts: 2,484
    @Manto1 - Yeah, I figured that an S II is probably not the smartest move and am going to look into a lesser powered device, but then again, the user-base is huge for the S II so may be a smart mov eon my part to get an S II and a lesser device and come to a happy medium, compromise-wise, when developing and testing.

    @MarkOnTheIron - Tell me about it! After the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, the celebrity status just went to their heads!

    @beefy_clyro - I don't value your opinion on anything, ever :bz Haha. That's what I was thinking, it may be a smart move to get the name out their and the game design and code will be done, just a matter of porting, so not much effort for (potentially) more customer awareness. I hate the fact that I won't be able to use the App Store, but at the end of the day, it's just for testing. I may give it to my Mrs or something for the time I'm not testing because she always steals my iPad when she want's to go online.

    @LiquidGameworks - I know, it sucks that it's pretty impossible to make money on Android, especially when it has such an enormous user-base! Android really missed a trick there with their App Store!

    Ace
  • heathccheathcc Member Posts: 113
    For me, the Android market is a complete zoo and I regret paying even $25 to place an app there even if I've made a little more. I think a good store needs some level of curation, and an easy payment method. The last part of that is important since many Android (and iOS) users don't have credit cards on file. Nearly every Kindle Fire user does- one click buy.
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