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DevJuice: Should I develop cross platform?
App Store. Android. Amazon. If you're a developer, there are lots of possible venues competing for your attention. So which one is worth your time and energy? I turned to Avatron Founder and CEO Dave Howell for the answer. Avatron makes Air Display, a popular app that allows you to use a mobile device like an iPad or phone as an extra display for your computer. When you're on the road, it's nice to be able to offload a Twitter stream, for example, onto a secondary screen so your laptop can be dedicated more to your work. Air Display is now available across a number of platforms, including the following stores: Apple iOS App Store (iOS) Apple Mac App Store (Mac) Google Android Market (Android) Amazon Appstore (Android) Samsung Apps (Bada) Intel AppUp (Windows netbooks) Given the time investment, the overhead, and general work involved in developing cross platform, where has Avatron seen its strongest sales? You won't be surprised by the answer: in the iOS App Store. Like many other developers, Avatron has found that the App Store delivers customers and product interest in ways that other platforms have been unable to match. Howell lays out the sales as follows: iOS App Store: Strong sales Mac App Store: 1/10 of the sales of the iOS App Store Android Market: 1/2 of the Mac App Store sales Samsung Apps: 1/5 of Android Market Amazon App Store: 1/10 of Android Market Intel AppUp: "4 copies in over an entire year" and Howell bought one of those copies. Each store has its strengths, weaknesses, and quirks, but Howell is clear about one thing -- No matter how we App Store developers complain, "iOS is the most painless of the bunch. And this is coming from a developer whose latest iOS app was pulled by Apple without any credible justification." Avatron retired Air Dictate this January. "Our most recent submission of Air Dictate did not break any rules, or use any private APIs," Howell said, discussing the background of that situation. "Apple pulled it because it bizarrely claimed that apps that "relate to Siri" are infringing Apple's Siri trademark or copyright. I sent them the email addresses to three Apple IP lawyers so the app review team could get a tutorial on what exactly trademarks and copyrights are, but my helpful suggestion have proved fruitless so far." Compared to other stores, however, Apple's App Store offers the simplest road to market and the best logistics. "The latest move by Google requires Android Market sales to go through Google Wallet. No more PayPal, Zong, or Boku. And now Android Market is called Google Play," Howell explained. "I can't keep up with the thrashing. And Google still offers no way to give out promo codes, or even to purchase a copy of an app for somebody else. Apple's way, way ahead in this kind of logistics." Howell pointed out that Amazon remains US-only. "Amazon does let us buy gift cards for people, which is nice. As long as they're in the US and they don't mind getting their apps through Amazon Appstore. Amazon's review process is no faster than Apple's, and strangely it's much slower to get an app approved for Amazon's own Kindle Fire than for other devices. So their own customers get our apps later than everybody else." Despite low sales in Samsung Apps and Intel AppUp, Howell reports that the recruiting process and submission was pleasant enough. So should you invest time going cross platform? Hopefully Avatron's experience gives you a hint as to the market possibilities. If you like this kind of developer-centric coverage, please let our editorial team know. Drop a note and tell TUAW that you care about dev topics.
Avatron's Dave Howell on the future of Air Display, Air Sharing and Print Sharing
Last week at CES 2011 we met up with Dave Howell, whose Avatron Software has delivered three apps to the App Store so far. Air Display and Air Sharing are already TUAW favorites, and Print Sharing is a relatively new app targeting one feature specifically: printing to a shared printer directly from your iPhone or iPod touch. Howell walked us through his three apps, then talked a little bit about the future roadmap of each and the rest of what Avatron is up to. Air Display is still Avatron's most popular app; two different engineers are working on it, with one working on solving connectivity problems, and the other ironing out performance issues. Avatron wants to make Air Display more useful, even away from the computer it's sharing a screen with, so the company is working on allowing users to zoom or scale the display as they use it. Video out is also coming soon, so you'll be able to send a shared display out to a TV or any other display. Air Sharing's main goal now is to add as many sharing services and document types as possible. The app lets you dive in and view documents from Dropbox and Box.net already, and Howell says Google Documents is next to come to the service. Print Sharing is a much more focused app, but Howell says it's been popular, too. Print Sharing's current goal is to support as many file types as it can; Howell said Print Sharing would get the same updates that the engineers working on Air Display will provide.
Coming up at 1 PM EDT: A special TUAW Talkcast with Dave Howell
Please join us today at 1PM Eastern Daylight Time for a live TalkShoe audio chat with Avatron Software CEO, Dave Howell. Avatron is the maker of "Air Sharing" for the new iPad. Air Sharing, which has been around for some time on the iPhone and iPod touch, is one of the best selling file viewing and management utilities around. We'll be discussing how and why the revised version of this app really understands and takes advantage of the iPad's built in features like document sharing. When: Today, 27 April 2010 at 1PM Eastern, 10AM Pacific Who: Anyone who's interested in iPad features and applications How: To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; for maximum fun, call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 1 PM EDT today. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk with you then! %Gallery-91903% Update: Informal TUAW poll — what file formats should Avatron add to Air Sharing in the next edition? I know that we're voting for better AVI support. Add your requests to the comments and we'll send 'em on over to Dave Howell in a few days.
Upcoming: Join us for a live Air Sharing for iPad interview
Please join us on Tuesday at 1PM Eastern Daylight Time for a live TalkShoe audio chat with Avatron Software CEO, Dave Howell. Avatron is the maker of "Air Sharing" for the new iPad. Air Sharing, which has been around for some time on the iPhone and iPod touch, is one of the best selling file viewing and management utilities around. We'll be discussing how and why the revised version of this app really understands and takes advantage of the iPad's built in features like document sharing. When: Tuesday, 27 April 2010 at 1PM Eastern, 10AM Pacific Who: Anyone who's interested in iPad features and applications Where: We'll put up a post sending you to the TalkShoe chat on Tuesday We're looking forward to seeing you there! There will be a live reader chat going on at the same time as the audio interview.
