据bloomber消息，Pinger公司是一家移动应用开发公司，为苹果设备应用开发获得的收入是Android的两倍，但这并未阻止Pinger开发其首款Android应用。Pinger首席产品与营销官乔·斯福尔（Joe Sipher）说：“虽然开发Android应用收入较低，但我们认为其意义重大。我们的用户经常说‘天啊，我换了一部Android手机，你们的 Textfree应用能在Android手机上运行吗？’”

android

市场咨询机构Booz预计2014年应用市场规模将达到400亿美元，其中主要来自Google Android平台，Pinger公司和其它开发者都不会错过这一机遇。上季度，Android移动操作系统在美份额已超RIM操作系统，位居第一。使开发者更愿意忍受其当前缺点，包括较高的应用创建成本及在线商店的不便利性，部分用户认为Android在线商店的操纵难度较苹果App Store软件商店大。

《宝石迷阵》（Bejeweled）和《植物大战僵尸》（Plants vs. Zombies）游戏开发者PopCap Games公司尚未在Android Market软件商店上发布游戏，该公司预计在2011年中，同时为iPhone和Android手机发布游戏。

对Android寄予厚望

PopCap游戏公司移动业务开发主管安德鲁·斯泰因（Andrew Stein）说：“即使我们现在无法在Android上赚到钱，也对之寄予厚望。人们使用、购买Android内容的规模一定不亚于iPhone。”

摩托罗拉Droid X和宏达电Droid Incredible等Android手机已获得忠实信徒。

斯泰因表示，他预计2011年底来自Android游戏的营收将接近来自iPhone的游戏营收。

大量应用是吸引手机买家的关键。苹果目前拥有25万款应用，而Android应用只有7万款。Google同苹果一样，只按30%收取软件商店上销售的应用营收。Google发言人兰德尔·萨拉法（Randall Sarafa）说：“我们希望减少摩擦，取消障碍，为开发者向用户推出伟大应用提供便捷，尽可能满足不同设备、不同区域、不同运营商的需求。”

Android补救措施

Google或采取补救措施，增加开发者开发Android应用的吸引力。由于苹果iTunes保存了用户信息，用户可通过单击完成购物。如果 Android买家注册Google Checkout，也能完成单击购物，但Google Checkout用户较少。

bloomberg

诺维斯特风险投资公司（Norwest Venture Partners）风险资本家蒂姆·张（Tim Chang）表示，Android Market软件商店还缺少应用购买功能，部分苹果应用开发人员借助该功能销售新游戏等级和虚拟物品。

三名知情人士上月透露，Google正在与EBay旗下的PayPal谈判，添加其支付服务，简化买家购买过程。Google工程副总裁安迪·鲁宾（Andy Rubin）6月份表示，Google还可能提供允许开发者通过应用销售订阅服务和虚拟物品的工具。

付费遭遇免费

位置应用开发者Loopt和提供ZumoDrive文件存储服务的Zecter表示，他们从Android应用上赚的钱较iPhone应用少。 Loopt CEO萨姆·阿尔特曼（Sam Altman）说：“毋庸置疑，Android手机较半年前多得多，但目前还不能说Android平台对开发者的吸引力更高。”

Zecter通过让用户先下载免费应用，然后升级至付费应用赚钱。Zecter CEO大卫·赵（David Zhao）表示，逾30%的iPhone客户就是由免费下载转至付费应用的客户。

移动广告公司Smaato Inc数据显示，Android吸引较少的付费应用下载，点击Android应用广告的人数也较少。今年7月份，iPhone在美的点通率（Click- through Rate：网上广告被点击次数与被显示次数之比）为140，Android点通率为130。

市场研究公司Gartner表示，上季度Android手机在美份额为34%。Pinger公司的斯福尔指出，这并不意味着Android应用有众多客户。部分Android手机无法访问Google软件商店。Android手机型号过多预示着部分应用无法在一些手机上运行。

产品变数

移动应用和广告开发公司POP总裁比尔·普瑞德摩尔（Bill Predmore）表示，应用开发者需要应对不同版本的Android手机及显示屏分辨率和键盘方面的差异，增加软件测试成本，迫使开发者开发面向大众手机的应用。

但Android手机销量激增吸引了部分有远见的开发者。移动应用开发者Zumobi联合创始人约翰·乔瓦尼（John SanGiovanni）说，Zumobi开发的Android应用带来的流量不足3%，但公司在Android应用领域的投资与iPhone应用投资几乎相当。Zumobi开发的广告支持的免费应用从Android平台上获得的营收与iPhone相当，有时还略高于iPhone营收。

Pinger Inc., a developer of mobile applications, can get twice as much in sales from programs for Apple devices than for phones powered by Android software. That’s not stopping it from creating its first Android app.

“Even if the revenue generation might be less, we think it’s still going to be significant,” said Joe Sipher, chief product and marketing officer at San Jose, California-based Pinger, which makes text-messaging and other programs. “Our users are saying, ‘Gosh, I switched to an Android phone, can you put your Textfree app on Android?’”

Pinger and other programmers don’t want to miss out on the $40 billion that Booz & Co. estimates will come from sales of apps by 2014, much of it from Google Inc.’s Android platform. Android unseated Research In Motion Ltd.’s software as the top mobile operating system in the U.S. last quarter. That’s making developers more willing to put up with its drawbacks, including higher app-creation costs and an online marketplace some users consider harder to navigate than Apple’s App Store.

PopCap Games Inc., maker of the “Bejeweled” and “Plants vs. Zombies” games, doesn’t yet have any titles in the Android Market. By mid-2011, the Seattle-based company expects to release games simultaneously for iPhone and Android handsets.

‘High Hopes’

“Even though we are not making any money on Android right now, we have pretty high hopes for it,” said Andrew Stein, PopCap’s director of mobile business development. “There’s really no reason why users shouldn’t consume and buy content to the same extent on an Android phone as they are on an iPhone.”

Android phones like Motorola Inc.’s Droid X and HTC Corp.’s Droid Incredible are gaining devotees. Stein said he expects revenue generated from Android games to approach that of its iPhone versions by the end of 2011.

A wide variety of apps — as well as the availability of the most popular ones for games, location, texting and content — is critical to luring phone buyers. Apple has more than 250,000 apps available, compared with about 70,000 for Android.

Like Apple, Google takes a 30 percent cut of revenue from apps sold in its marketplace.

“We want to reduce friction and remove the barriers that make it difficult for developers to make great apps available to users — across as many devices, geographies and carriers as possible,” said Randall Sarafa, a Google spokesman.

Google rose $10.32, or 2.3 percent, to $460.34 yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has lost 26 percent this year.

Android Remedies

Google may be taking steps to remedy some of the issues that make Android app creation less lucrative to developers.

Apple iTunes users can do one-click shopping because iTunes saves their information. While Android buyers can do the same if they sign up for Google Checkout, that service doesn’t have as many users. Android Market also lacks features for in-app purchases, which some developers of Apple apps use to sell new game levels or virtual products, said Tim Chang, a venture capitalist at Norwest Venture Partners, whose investments includes iPhone-game maker Ngmoco.

Google is in talks with EBay Inc.’s PayPal to add its payment service, three people familiar with the matter said last month. That may ease the process for buyers. Google may also offer tools that let developers sell subscriptions and virtual goods from within apps, Andy Rubin, Google’s vice president of engineering, said in June.

For now, producing programs for Android isn’t as lucrative. Loopt Inc., the maker of an app for locating your friends on a map, and Zecter Inc., which offers the ZumoDrive file storage service, said they derive less in sales from Android apps than iPhone versions. Neither of the Mountain View, California-based companies would specify the difference.

Paid Versus Free

“There’s no question Android has a lot more phones out than six months ago, but that’s very different from saying Android is a more appealing platform for developers,” said Sam Altman, chief executive officer at Loopt.

ZumoDrive makes money by getting people to download the free program and then upgrade to a paid version. Thirty percent more iPhone customers do that, said CEO David Zhao.

Besides attracting fewer paid app downloads, fewer people click on ads in Android programs, according to data from Smaato Inc., a Redwood City, California-based mobile-ad firm. In July, the iPhone had a “click-through” rate of 140 in the U.S., compared with 103 for Android, Smaato said, citing data that measures which operating system had users that clicked on advertisements more often.

Plus, the market share Gartner Inc. measures for Android — 34 percent in the U.S. last quarter — doesn’t mean there are that many customers for apps, said Pinger’s Sipher. Some Android phones don’t have the ability to access Google’s app store and the proliferation of different models means some programs won’t work on some phones.

Product Variables

App creators have to contend with various versions of Android and differences in screen resolution and keyboard. That makes it more expensive to test programs and can force developers to design for the lowest common denominator, said Bill Predmore, president of POP, which builds mobile applications and ads for clients including Google, Microsoft Corp. and Target Corp.

Still, the accelerating rate of Android phone sales is luring some developers that keep long-term prospects in mind. While Zumobi, which makes MSNBC’s mobile app, gets less than 3 percent of its traffic from Android, the developer is investing almost as much in Android apps as it does for the iPhone, said co-founder John SanGiovanni. Zumobi’s free, ad-funded programs get about the same revenue, and in some cases, even a bit more, from Android, he said.

‘Senseless’

Google, itself, could help narrow the revenue gap for developers, according to Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts Inc. who now runs mobile-gaming company Digital Chocolate. He calls Google’s policy of letting consumers use paid apps for as long as 24 hours and return them for a full refund “senseless and lazy.”

“As a game platform right now, Android strikes out,” Hawkins said. “As long as they keep selling devices, Android could be a good game business by 2012, but it would blossom now if Google would get out of their own way.” （source：bloomberg/sohu）