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开发者揭示Amazon Appstore不尽人意的一面

发布时间:2011-07-07 14:51:06 Tags:,,

作者:Ryan Kim

运营一家成功应用商店不是小事。创建必要功能和服务,吸引用户和开发商眼球绝非易事,这点亚马逊公司有待学习。该公司遭某独立开发商指责,后者即将把应用撤离Amazon Appstore,转投Android商店,并将Amazon Appstore称作一大“灾难”,原因是该商店尚有许多不足。虽然只是某些开发商的不满,但说明创建成熟应用市场仍存在很大挑战,即便是对亚马逊这样一个经验丰富的零售商而言也是如此。

Amazon Appstore from i-steven.com

Amazon Appstore from i-steven.com

瑞士独立开发商Bithack(游戏邦注:其物理游戏《Apparatus》荣登亚马逊应用排行榜第三位)表示,其已和AmazonAppstore终止合作关系,接下来将转投Android Market。其首席执行官Emil Romanus曾发博文称,Amazon Appstore对其而言是一大灾难,其他小型开发商就不要庸人自扰。

Apparatus from androidgamespro.com

Apparatus from androidgamespro.com

他在文章陈述的问题包括:

* 无设备过滤功能。Appstore没有根据设备过滤应用,所以用户就会下载到不匹配或运作不佳的应用。Romanus表示这会导致大量低星级评价。

* 限制用户反馈。Amazon Appstore未向用户提供开发商联系渠道,所以Bithack只收到3个反馈信息,其中两个来自Twitter,而Android Market有数百条信息。开发商无法向用户退款,这是赢得用户满意的重要工具。

* 缓慢审核过程。开发商需两周之后才会获悉应用是否因没在社区对话小文件中使用HTTPS而出现销量下滑。之后的审核过程还需花费一周时间,更新内容也无法迅速通过。

* 无错误评价追索权。Romanus表示,最令人难以容忍的是评论称《Apparatus》只有连网才能呈现广告,追踪用户。Romanus表示有关网络连接和追踪方面的评价不符实际,但尽管如此其仍旧被视作“最有用的评价”。由于Bithack不是驻扎于美国(游戏邦注:这是亚马逊Appstore所覆盖的服务范围),Romanus无法购买可提交评价的应用。所以他无法反驳这个不合实际的评价,这已严重影响销量。

* 定价低。Romanus出现差评后,亚马逊把应用价格从1.5美元降至99美分,几乎是50%的折扣,而且没有提供理由。这是个存有争议但广泛宣传的亚马逊开发商协议条款,已遭到独立游戏开发者协会(Independent Games Developers Association)的反对。

Romanus表示,大型开发商能在Amazon Appstore坚持到底,因为他们有能力购买足够测试装置,能够应对漫长测试过程。他们具备足够影响力,因此亚马逊对他们力挺到底。在《Apparatus》成为商店当日免费应用(Free App of the Day)后,亚马逊没有跟进服务,当Romanus要求撤下应用时,该公司也没有给予回复。他表示,小型开发公司实在没必要投靠此平台。据他预测瞄准Android Market,销量下滑的情况也许不会这么明显,因为很多亚马逊用户是通过免费促销活动下载应用。他表示应用目前有18万次下载量,但其中只有1000份有付费。Romanus表示有关应用免费日促销活动,他们并没有从亚马逊那获得任何利益。

Romanus表示,“从开发者角度看,我不明白为何大家会选择在亚马逊Appstore发行应用。同样,我也不理解为何用户会放弃Android Market,选择亚马逊Amazon Appstore。”

如今,仍有很多开发者对Amazon Appstore情有独钟,Bithack遭遇并不具代表性。亚马逊凭借其强大推荐引擎和杰出功能(游戏邦注:如Test Drive,用户凭此能够先在电脑上对应用进行试用)掳获众多用户和开发者的芳心。

Bithack的离开表明Amazon Appstore尚有完善空间。给予开发商持续支持,提供必要成功和获利工具不是简单任务,这也是谷歌如今不断完善Android Market的地方。这也是苹果App Store取得如此成就的一大原因,因为其虽然设置了某些开发商限制,但仍着力迎合用户和开发商需求。

我确信亚马逊商店会日渐完善,特别是如果未来其也开始发行自己的平板电脑和其他设备。但如今显然仍有些开发商对其不甚满意。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Amazon’s Android Appstore, not so amazing

By Ryan Kim

Running a successful app store isn’t trivial. Building out the necessary features and services and making it appealing to both consumers and developers can be hard work, something Amazon is learning. The company has been taken to task by an independent developer that is pulling its game app from the Amazon Appstore for Android, calling it a “disaster” because of a number of shortcomings. It’s the complaint of one developer but it highlights some of the challenges in building a mature market for apps, even for an experienced retailer like Amazon.

Bithack, an independent Swedish developer responsible for physics-based game Apparatus, which hit No. 3 on the Amazon rankings, said it was done with Amazon Appstore and will focus all its efforts on Android Market. CEO Emil Romanus wrote in a blog post that Amazon Appstore was a disaster for him and said smaller dev shops shouldn’t bother.

He said the problems include:

* No device filtering. The Appstore doesn’t filter out apps by device so users were downloading the app to devices that couldn’t run the app or did so poorly. Romanus said that resulted in a lot of low ratings.

* Limited consumer feedback. There is no obvious option for contacting the developer on Amazon Appstore, and that has led to just three responses from consumers to Bithack, two through Twitter, compared to hundreds on Android Market. And there is no way to refund users, said Romanus, which is a key tool in keeping consumers happy.

* Slow review process. It took two weeks to hear back that the app was declined for not using HTTPS for a session cookie in the community section. After that was fixed, it took another week to get approved and subsequent updates aren’t approved quickly.

* No recourse for incorrect reviews. Romanus said the last straw was a review that stated that Apparatus must connect to the Internet to serve ads and actually tracks users. Romanus said the review was incorrect about the Internet connection and tracking but it nonetheless was voted “Most Helpful.” But because Bithack is not based in the U.S., where Amazon Appstore is limited to, Romanus couldn’t buy the app, which he said is a requirement for writing a review. So he had no way to refute the erroneous review. And that hurt sales significantly, he said.

* Cheap pricing. Romanus said that after the bad review, Amazon lowered the price to 99 cents from $1.50, which was already a 50 percent discount, without explaining why. That is a controversial but well-publicized provision in Amazon’s developer agreement that has sparked concerns from the Independent Games Developers Association.

Romanus said larger developers can afford to stick it out in Amazon Appstore because they can buy enough testing devices and can wait through a long testing process. And they’re likely to have more clout, so Amazon follows through on supporting them. He said Amazon didn’t follow-up after featuring Apparatus as its Free App of the Day and hasn’t responded to his email requesting the app to be pulled. He said for smaller developers, there’s little reason to stick around. And he predicts there will be little drop-off in sales by focusing on Android Market because most Amazon users just come for the free app promotions. He said he had 180,000 downloads, but only 1,000 of them were paid. Romanus told me Amazon didn’t pay him for the Free App of the Day promotion.

“From a developer perspective, I don’t see why anyone would choose to publish an app on Amazon Appstore. Similarly, I have yet to figure out why any user would switch to Amazon Appstore from Android Market…” Romanus wrote.

Now, there are plenty of developers who like Amazon Appstore and Bithack’s experience is not exactly representative. Amazon has won over many consumers and developers with its powerful recommendation engine and some cool features like Test Drive, which lets users try an app on their computer first.

But Bithack’s departure shows that there is still some maturing to be done for Amazon Appstore. Providing consistent support to developers and giving them all the tools necessary to be successful and profitable is a lot of work, something Google is still working on with Android Market. And it’s another reason why Apple has done so well with its App Store, because even with some developer restrictions, it’s pretty built-out for consumers and developers.

I’m sure we’ll see more improvements in Amazon’s store over time, especially if and when it launches its own tablets and other devices. But for now, at least one developer says Amazon’s Appstore isn’t quite there yet.(Source:gigaom


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