Apple's
App Store, with its millions of downloads, is clearly a hit with consumers. But with developers?
Not so much. Like a dashing hero to a scorned mistress, Google's Andy Rubin is pledging a different, more loving and respectful relationship with those who would fill his company's Android Market with selections -- and his pockets with royalties. He indicates that the Market will enable free downloadable trials, something that Apple is stubbornly refusing to add, and that those downloads would not be subject to any arbitrary bandwidth caps. Meanwhile, T-Mobile at least will be levying a $2/month fee on developers of free apps expected to use more than the (
somewhat arbitrary) amount of 15MB of data per user per month, though how they'll be keeping track of that data outside of their own content stack is unclear -- our guess is that they can't.
posted Oct 2nd 2008 1:53PM
Even it it's unenforceable, at least it's a low fee.
is it possible for them to demand a unique server address from the app company, where all app data would have to go through, and then charge for the data going to/from that specific server?
just imagine what at&t's fee would be o.0!
Whether T-Mobile's bandwidth charge is enforceable or not is irrelevant for Android developers. The charge applies only to applications sold via T-Mobile's Applications Store and that store doesn't contain any Android applications - they are specifically excluded! For Android applications, go to other places, such as Google's Android Market. Therefore, no Android developers should be subject to T-Mobile's $2 bandwidth charge - at least for now. Engadget's article may be misleading.
Correct me if my understanding is wrong...
I should add a caveat to my previous comment (as it applies only to free content, not to paid content)...
The $2 bandwidth charge won't be applied to developers of free Android Market applications. However, if developers wish to sell Android Market applications (ie paid content) on T-Mobile's network, then they must enter a revenue sharing agreement with T-Mobile. It's up to T-Mobile to decide when to extend their existing devPartner programme to cover Android and also whether Android applications will have differerent rules. The $2 bandwidth charge may therefore be applied to developers of paid Android Market applications...
I wish Apple's APP store would adopt this "trial" concept. Nothing worse than purchasing an app that blows. Having a trial would allow people to try out the app and assess quality and utility for themselves over a few days. This would most likely increase the quality and utility of all apps across the board. Likewise, it would allow app prices to more accurately be set/justified based on market demand. Everyone seems to win.
What's to keep a developer from putting two apps on the Apple store- a free one with a self-destruct time bomb (or progressively worse nagware or whatever) and another paid one with no restrictions?
Many apps and games in the AppStore have a free "Lite" version that is effectively a trial. In the case of games, for instance, they are usually exactly like the full versions but with just the first 3 levels so you can try them out.
Yeah I know trust me. I bought the "I Am Rich" application and I felt so ripped off!
how much is T-Mobiles/Androids take on apps sold through the marketplace?
How about apple charging 99 cents per trial download with a 48 hrs. to buy for full price or get inactive scheme?
How about apple charging nothing per trial download with a 48 hrs. to buy for full price or get inactive scheme?
Once you have an open platform like Android, it see no reason why someone couldn't just create an alternative to the market place and offer it for free. SourceForge for example in conjunction with a small applet installed on the G1 could offer something similar without charging a cent. The end result might not be quite as polished or organized, but a lot of folks can put up with a little chaos in exchange for a lot of free.
Good point. Is it open or is it 'open'? Will you not be allowed to download or install applications directly from a developer?
The only thing is that you don't need the marketplace to install apps.
Even though the platform may be open (i.e the Android OS), that does not mean that any applications downloaded from the App Store will have to be open. App Store downloads will be compiled binaries, not source code.
@Martin:
Umm, that's exactly why I suggested what I did. You install a DIFFERENT "Market Place" app on the phone (you should be able to since it's an "open" platform) which pulls IT'S applications from a different source, not the Android Market Place. That source could be SourceForge, or any other free hosting site. Besides, what does whether the apps are compiled or source code have to do with anything?
Oops, i withdraw my comment. Seems I'm way off base with it. I see what you're saying now and that might be a good way to get TMobile out of the loop. Obviously not for those who want to sell their apps though.
Woah woah woah! Patsy, Martin, Calm down! We can't go around having civilized and respectful conversation on the internet. Sorry guys, it's extreme fanboyism or nothing.
Seriously though, this is a really good question Patsy. I could imagine downloading one app: a repository manager that links to a third-party repo...kinda like Livna for Fedora. From then on, if it's on the repo, it's available for free.
Woah woah woah! Patsy, Martin, Calm down! We can't go around having civilized and respectful conversation on the internet. Sorry guys, it's extreme fanboyism or nothing.
Seriously though, this is a really good question Patsy. I could imagine downloading one app: a repository manager that links to a third-party repo...kinda like Livna for Fedora. From then on, if it's on the repo, it's available for free.
@jorvay:
Exactly. The repo managers in Ubuntu et al are a good analogy, they even make it extremely easy to browse, download and install. Something like that, but for Android.
Problem is that the fee for the App store is still relatively small. Even if I werent selling my App, i might still want to pay the $2 fee so it could be visible to the whole Android user base, not just the tech savvy community who is looking for their Apps thru this separate system.
Of course they can do that, the Android Market is there purely for convenience, it is by no means the only way to load programs onto your phone. Developers could link to a download for their app on their web page. They could give you a demo for free in the Market and then have that demo self-upgrade through their own server to the full version. There is absolutely nothing forcing anybody to use the Market, it is just a piece of niceness put there by Google so that everybody can get their apps out to the masses easily if they don't have the means to do it themselves.
You don't even need an alternative to the market. Apps can be loaded from any website.
Hmm, a little confused. T-Mobile will be levying the bandwidth fee for apps in its separate app store, not the Android Market.
I live in Sweden but my mom is going to be in New York on the 22:nd and i just want to know if she can buy a phone without a contract to bring back to me :)
I have read that you can get one without a contract for $399, does anybody know if that is true?
T-Mobile does something very similar with the Sidekick. (You Engadget writers remember the Sidekick, right? Invented by some Rubin guy.) Most apps are a one-time fee, but apps that use the network on a regular basis carry a monthly recurring charge based on the bandwidth the apps use.
(Also, there's nothing mysterious about how this could be accomplished. User-agent fields, for example. Most of the network traffic is HTTP-based.)
So if I have an unlimited data plan, I have to pay extra for bandwidth eating apps???
The developer pays the $2 fee not the user from what I understand reading the article. It would be stupid to charge the user for bandwidth and then charge them again when a free app uses the bandwidth.
NO, the charge is only for the developer. It would be stupid to charge the user twice for bandwith usage. If it is so, a LOT of users will be complaining (or they should be). And this policy seems to only apply to T-mobile's own app store and not the Android Market. The Android Market will have no restrictions on bandwidth.
Did you even read the article?
The way I read this is:
Say I develop an application and post it FOR FREE in the market and it gets 1 million dedicated users.. they use it to do something which on average per user causes a 15MB+/month data pull over the wireless inet... I have to pay tmobile *ahem* $2 Million ?!!
The way I read it is that it is just $2 if on average per user uses 15MB+/month. So just $2 not $2 million. If it is for each user that is way too much for just 15MB of usage especially when the users already paid for the bandwidth. I don't think T-mobile would be that unreasonable.
Engadget should try to do a more clear report and the title is so misleading. Seems like this fee is part of the T-mobile store that was announced a while back and has nothing to do with Android market. As the article mentions Android Market has no such restriction.
Here's an article on T-mobile's own app store:
http://www.smartdevicecentral.com/article/TMobile+Announces+Nov+Launch+for+Apps+Store/231969_1.aspx
Uhm, am I not already paying for bandwidth?
The only way I can see for them to enforce this is to build (another) walled garden. They would have to prevent us from installing anything outside of their market. They would also have to make the development process more than the 3-step youtube model. This $2 charge would have to be per customer per month which would mean recurring charges. Please oh please, don't let them turn this into another closed up tight thing, like the sidekick. I hope we will know in time to send it back, because I'm not doing the walled garden thing again.
it's a fee the developer pays. I don't really understand the point, but then again, the way cellphone schemes are priced never made sense to me anyways.
How awful does that marketplace look. Google could at least pay someone with an imagination to design Android for them.
If that screen-shot represents the future of communication and mobility I think we here in America deserve to lose everything...Q