“Last year, a study concluded that iPhone and BlackBerry users are far more likely to pay for an app — at 57% and 33% respectively,” Mike Schuster reports for Minyanville. “Only 16% of Android users were willing to shell out for a program. Analyst Dean Bubley called paid apps on the Android one of the Biggest Turkeys of 2011. He wrote: ‘There’s a strong correlation between a willingness to spend $$ on apps and willingness to give Steve Jobs $300 gross margin per device. Everyone else counts their pennies & will go for cheap/free wherever possible.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Due to carrier subsidies, to the end user, iPhone costs about the same as a pretend iPhone. The 3GS starts at $49. It doesn’t get much cheaper. Also, of course, thinking people realize that most of a smartphone’s cost isn’t upfront, but in the 2-year plans which are pretty much the same regardless of device.
“Although Android users are more likely to click on apps, developers who are looking for a profit from their hard work are giving Apple first dibs,” Schuster reports. “And Google has taken notice. At the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco this week, Android platform manager Eric Chu said he was ‘not happy’ about the lack of paid app purchases in the Android Market.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Google doesn’t have iTunes. Along with fragmentation and, let’s face it, a user base consisting of freetards and/or less knowledgeable users, the lack of iTunes is Google’s insurmountable problem.
Have you ever seen a beat up VW bug with a Mercedes hood ornament duct taped onto it? Android.
Hey! If the software is given away to phone makers, the your customers will want free apps to go with it. Google, you set the standard, now live with it!
Things I’ve actually heard;
“It hasn’t ever really done email, but it was cheaper than an iPhone!”
“It’s the same as an iPhone, but way cheaper! It takes photos and makes calls. Well, I can’t get the pictures off the phone on to my computer.”
Why would I pay all that money for an Apple phone when I can get the same thing for so much less money?”
Yes, “freetards”.
Absolutely perfect.
Thanks, MDN. I’ll use this one.
Windows is a similar story. It’s for the “freetards.” Mac users spend a lot more on average (per user) for software, and are much less likely to pirate software. The only reason Windows development is (has been) worthwhile, is (was) because Windows has its 90% share. Even if only about 10% of that 90% spends money on software, it is (has been) at least equal to the “Apple opportunity.”
But now, with the Mac App Store, along with the steadily growing Mac market share (AND iPad being seen more and more as “computers”), the disparity will grow. Developers will see the “Apple opportunity” and start to focus on it, at the expense of Windows development.
It’s no surprise that Android is following the Windows example.
It just gets better and better. Watching the Android fragmentation grow is free entertainment
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Just Check out it’s 2-year performance. Where’s it gonna go now?
That’s sort of a
” rel=”nofollow”>Well, DUH thing.