Posts by RyokuMas

Re: Take my money! Oh, you're too busy...

I had a great experience the last time I went to an Apple store...

I was looking for a basic iPhone to test the iOS port of a game on. First up, the salesgirl pointed me at the iPod touch. I explained that in order to test, I needed to be able to receive incoming calls, so I could make sure that the game behaved correctly if someone called the phone mid-game.

She pointed me at the lowest cost iPhone. I asked if they did any reconditioned old handsets or second-hand, to which she said "no, but you could try Computer Exchange down the road..."

She then glanced round furtively, fished in her pocket, pulled out a very well used 4S and said quietly "it's where this came from."

I grinned, thanked her and walked out. 20 minutes and a swift transaction later, I was the proud owner of a secondhand 4S, and two hours later, I was testing my game on device. :)

Re: Refund?

@Dropbear - do you love your job so much that you would take on a project knowing that there's a high chance that you won't get paid anything for it?

Because this is exactly what that sort of attitude is saying to indie devs: "make me the best game you can, but don't expect anything in return for your efforts, and if you ask, I'll go elsewhere." This is why the fremium and in-app-add models have risen to the point where they are now abused so thoroughly.

Developers are starting to realise that highest market share does not equate to best platform to target. As I've said before, while Android has about 85% market share, once you factor in that 90% of apps installed are pirate copies (search for "Android Piracy" and apply the median value), it becomes obvious that only 8.5% of the smartphone market can be designated "return-making Android" - less than that of iOS, and only about three and a half times that of Windows Phone. Add to this a huge maintenance overhead (thanks to the massive number of combinations of device, OS version and screen resolution) and low chance of discoverability due to a flooded app store (brought about by a low joining fee and no pre-publishing security/quality checking), and it becomes very unappealing. And this is before the slap in the face of "yeah, your app is good, but I'm not paying for it, go back to your day job".

Yes, I know this is going to attract a load of downvotes - but then the truth hurts. I'm also not advocating Apple's app store process as perfect - in fact by my reckoning, it goes way too far the other way, and I'm waiting for them to require a retinal scan before allowing you to publish.

But I thought that the whole point of Android being "open" was to make it easy and attractive to developers... too bad that this "ain't gonna pay for your hard work" is now starting to drive us away.

Re: Refund?

@Nigel Brown - I really hope that's sarcasm you're going for there.

Re: Desperate Microsoft

3% of world market share... yep, pretty horrible.

But then when you compare it to the approx 8% market share of "willing to pay for stuff" Android users (80% total market share modified for 90% piracy rate), it becomes worth targeting.

Unless someone can find confirmed figures for Windows Phone and iPhone piracy rates...

Ultimately, I guess that the really disappointing thing here is that out of the entire smartphone market, 72% seem to think they're entitled to free apps - many of which have required months to develop...

Re: You have competition AND compatability.

"It astounds me that the Googloids keep building their arguments based on Google being somehow naturally and intrinsically "good"."

They're kind-of like the technical equivalent of the politically correct brigade - except that anyone who doesn't fit in with their way of thinking is either a "shill" or a "Microsoft employee", rather than a "racist".

I think it's rather funny watching them become the very thing they hate... All this rubbish about "an open source OS that google merely manages" - in other words, Google have embraced AOSP. And over the years they have slowly been extending it by means of their APIs. And now, with Google's pretty much defacto control of web search among the sheep and the advent of "Android Silver Standards", it looks suspiciously like the start of the extinguish part of the cycle.

And, as you rightly point out, there's plenty of "Googloids" all to ready to spread FUD, usually along the lines of "If you're not with us, you'll be stuck with Microsoft!" - I think even the most hardened fan would have to admit that there have been a number of monumental cock-ups and acts of nastiness over Microsoft's history - but who's to say anyone else is going to be any better? Google certainly isn't looking like it will - not any more. Absolute power corrupts absolutely - and what better indication is there of "absolute power" in a particular field that your company's name becoming synonymous with the field itself?

Think before you downvote - are you doing it because you genuinely disagree (in which case, post a reply and counter-argue), or are you doing it because someone dared criticise your supreme Google overlords?

Re: Windows Phone

@App-developer AC: Features aside, from my experience, everything I've written for WinPhone to date just... works: I know what runs on my Nokia test device will run just fine on an HTC and so forth.

Apple - same thing, but by god, the hoops you have to jump through to get anything onto the damn store! Create this certificate, download, install, get your device UUID, upload, create provisioning profile, download, install... feels more like a military compound that a walled garden! Mind you, that said, once up and running, the actual development is pretty simple, and again, it "just works", although with only one device manufacturer, I'd blood well expect it to...

Android... quite frankly, I'm almost scared to put anything out on it. Finding that a Samsung handset works fine while another manufacturer's (think it was Sony, belonged to a mate) running the same OS version crashes when trying to resume... certainly lowers confidence in the platform from a developer perspective, especially when it seems you need at least half-a-dozen handsets for testing purposes.

Re: um

Careful cornz1 - next thing you know, you'll be accused of being a "shill", or a "microsoft employee", making those kind of noises!

Re: Icons

"Ah well 1500 apps removed four left."

Go home AC, you're boring.

Re: Not surprising

Now hold on...

"Not sure why C's getting the blame for bad Android apps (see end of article)"

The end of the article is talking about free apps that were surveyed, not banking apps. In fact, I don't recall the article mentioning that the problem was specifically with Android banking apps.

Not that I trust any banking app, regardless of OS: while the current security spotlight is on Android due to it being both the biggest and easiest target, I firmly believe that nothing is secure if someone has good enough reason to want to break it.

Re: Cult of crapple comes to rescue

@a53 - you think this is bad? Try having a reasonable discussion which involves balancing Microsoft's evils against those of other companies, and watch the accusations of "shill!" fly...

Re: Hello pot, this is kettle...

Ah, the age old accusation of "shill" coming to the fore once again, despite my stating that I'd like to see all app stores cleared up. Favourite cry of those who are so caught up with their fifteen-plus year old grudge that they have become like Pavlov's dog, but instead of hearing a bell, and starting drooling, they read the word "Microsoft" and start ranting.

Such people end up only giving their own chosen community a bad reputation - look what happened to Eadon.

However, I have to admit that I mistyped on my original post: my intention was to focus solely on mobile. When it comes to the Windows store, I agree with Splodger - what the hell is the point?

Re: History repeats itself...

Distinct difference between malware and scamware, and I think you'll find that the former of these not currently a Windows Phone problem - at least, not for now.

Of course, if WP starts gaining decent traction, I'd be willing to bet good money that someone will find a hack and we'll start seeing stuff a lot worse than fake apps for a price.

Hello pot, this is kettle...

... and similarly, as soon as an article mentions Microsoft, all those who just can't let their grudge go come out to put the boot in again.

If cleaning up the Windows Store is a herculean task, what of cleaning up other mobile stores, regardless of operating system? Especially when the requirements to get an app into a store are no more than paying $25, posting it, and getting through a few bare-bones checks...

I'd love to see a clean-up - on all stores. I'd really love to see blatant clone apps and games included in this sweep, too. And it would be interesting to see just how many apps are left on each store after such a clean-up.