2010年即将结束，业内人士热议的话题之一就是：Android在2011年能否在与iOS的角力中获得更多优势？尽管Android手机销量已经超过iPhone，但无可辩驳的事实就是，iOS仍然会是开发商首选的平台。不过阿克沙伊·科塔里（Akshay Kothari）这名原来坚定拥护iPhone平台的开发商却有了不同的看法。

Google-Android-army

科塔里是Alphonso Labs公司的联合创始人，热门新闻阅读应用Pluse的开发者，Pluse最先是投放到iPad平台，后来又延伸到了iPhone，现在Android平台也可以运行这款应用。科塔里认为苹果和iPad给予的支持是他们一直坚守iOS这一阵地的主要原因。但最近又表示，他们认为Android平台在这几周的进步非常明显，Android平台最近有三个现象值得关注：

1）Android应用商店改革：在此之前，该应用商店的“新闻&天气”产品列表中经常是天气应用唱主角，而且应用排行榜也几乎形同虚设。但现在这种情况得到改观了，该应用商店的产品归类比以前更具体了，增加了“新闻&杂志”等更多搜索类别。产品描述中新增了一个广告条幅，支持上传更多截图，产品描述的关键字也可以超过250个。虽然仍然不够完美，但至少比以前进步了许多。

2）Android手机/平板电脑更加强大：之前Pluse的用户经常投诉该应用在旧型号手机上的运行效果很不理想，有时候是小部件出问题，有时候是加载速度太慢。但现在这类问题已经大量减少了，因为新手机硬件产品的运行性能更加稳定了。Pluse在Galaxy Tab平台上的运行效果尤其出色，这些硬件产品有助于提高Android的市场影响力。

3）Android应用商店增强了推广效果：应用投放到苹果App Store进行推广，可能就会收获比平常渠道多10倍的下载流量；虽然Android Market还不能做到这一点，但Pluse自上周成为该应用商店的推荐产品后，现在每日下载量堪比在iOS平台上的全盛时期。

据游戏邦了解，Android Market还将支持开发商上传产品展示视频，最近三星又宣布将发布绑定Android的媒体播放器（有人戏称为Android版本的iPod touch），这对Android应用开发商来确实是个好消息。

现在最关键的问题就是应用收益。虽然iOS平台上的开发商更容易创收，但Android Market也一直在努力引进更多运营商计费系统。不过付费应用投放到App Store远比在Android Market上更畅销，这倒是个不争的事实。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Will 2011 See App Makers Thinking Android-First? One Developer Thinks It’s Possible

Over the weekend, there was a ton of talk about 2011 being the year in which Android “explodes” onto the market. You could argue that 2010 was already that year, but plenty of numbers indicate that 2011 will be much bigger for the platform. But despite Android as a whole already outselling the iPhone, there’s little debate that amongst developers, iOS is still the platform you develop for first. But this could change as well in 2011, at least according to one developer. And it’s significant because he’s been an iPhone-first guy up until now.

Akshay Kothari is the co-founder of Alphonso Labs, the development house behind the popular Pulse news reader app. Pulse started as an iPad app first, then expanded to the iPhone, then came to Android. Kothari credits both the support they’ve received from Apple and the press surrounding the iPad as the reason why they’ve been so iOS-centric up until now. But, “our thinking about the Android platform has changed significantly over the last couple weeks,” he writes to us.

“A few interesting things have happened on Android recently,” he continues. What things? He lists three specifically:

i) Revamp of the Android store: Initially, News was bundled into “news & weather” category, which was dominated by weather apps. Also, the leaderboard/featured was very hard to crack through.

This has been improved, with new categories such as “News&Magazines” and much better discovery of apps, in general. Having a banner, more screenshots and getting more than 250 keywords to describe your app is huge. Still not perfect, but much better.

ii) More powerful Android phones/Tablets: Initially we were plagued by emails complaining about how some features in Pulse did not work on old phones. Sometimes the widgets wouldn’t work, sometimes it would load really slowly. A lot of these problems are disappearing now, because a lot of these devices are pretty solid now. Particularly the Galaxy Tab, where Pulse works really really well. We’ve learned a lot and improved the app also, but the devices these days are pretty fast.

iii) Getting featured on the Market: Getting featured on the App Store gets you tons of downloads, easily 10x your normal traffic. I never thought Google’s blessings could do the same. Pulse is currently a featured app since last week, and the downloads every day are comparable to our best days on iOS.

Pulse is indeed currently featured in the Android Market.

“So far, our innovation has moved from iOS to Android, and it may stay that way in the near term. But with the option to instantly get feedback on your new update, it may not be too far-fetched to have innovation move from Android platforms to iOS platform,” Kothari notes.

News broke yesterday that the revamped Android Market could soon see video demos alongside the regular images. And then there’s the talk for the first true Android-based iPod touch competitor.

Both are also good signs for Android development.

But the major issue up until now has of course been money. As in, developers on the iOS platform have an easier road to make it. Google is also working to improve that by getting new carrier-billing deals in place for the Market. But the fact remains that paid apps are a much easier sell in the App Store than in the Market. That will need to change in 2011 for developers to really start going Android-first in a meaningful way.（source:techcrunch）