Is Android getting pushed to the side?

[RandomGuyWeird]

I feel like the big corporation developers (ea, digital chocolate, gameloft...) are pushing Android to the side. With the Blackberry Developer conference going on, and the whole Open GL 2.0 stuff going on, I'm feeling kind of lustful. Especially because I just switched from the Storm to a DROID in hopes of better apps. However EA is making premium games for the iPhone (obviously) and Blackberry! However Android has had this support from its origins!! Android was "fun" for these companies to develop for at first, but now people don't care. No offense to small developers, but I WANT BIG CORPORATION APPS! The DROID is just as capable as the iPhone! Why aren't these companies pushing 3D apps for Android. The EA games for Android, are just like their DUMBPHONE counterparts! Come on!?!?!? Where is the hype, maybe a developer conference is in order for Android?? Post to this thread, I want to send it to EA. Maybe if we get enough support EA will notice!!!

 

[BSmith]

I think 2.0 is going to be the version that will get taken seriously. I think the technology is moving along to where it's going to be worth it to develop now.

I never used a G1 or any other pre 2.0 Android device, but then again, I don't remember any buzz about them either. Blackberry and Iphone have a TON of buzz around them, and the Droid is a start at touching some of that buzz.

 

[maddmatt02]

also, not sure about the blackberrys running apps from the card, but the iphone has 8/16/or 32 gigs of internal storage, while the android phones so far have I dont think any more than 150MB or so free for apps.

and Im pretty sure theres games for the iphone, that would take more space than the entire ROM in the android phones (512MB).

could be a big reason, why waste time developing these huge intensive games when the only person who could take advantage of them was a user with a rooted phone running apps2sd or something.

 

[flan]

There are some pretty simple ways around the space limitation. It should be simple enough to create a very small app that's essentially a shell, and then download any resources that use up a lot of space into a cache on the SD card. If the app detects that the cache is no longer there (deleted, different card), it can download them again. If there's no card, or not enough room on the card, throw an error message.

It's not ideal, but I think it's definitely a good enough solution. Heck, maybe there's space for a developer to make a whole framework that handles all that file juggling for you.

 

[Mrstickball]

Unfortunately, the Android marketplace isn't large enough to garner serious investment by top-tier game companies.

According to some estimates by FADE LLC, the top title in October (after 1.6 and Hero launched) sold approximately $23,000 in revenue. That's certainly not enough to warrant serious interest from the likes of EA or other top-tier companies.

Here's the chart if your interested:

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=5777
(I can't copy-paste the table, sorry!)


As you can see, the Android marketplace is very, very small compared to the As you can see, the Android marketplace is very, very small compared to the iPhone or other markets. However, Google has made some good changes, like the 1.6 revision, which will make the market better for developers. However, I think the bad chargeback policy needs changed, as well as forcing Google Checkout on all buyers. Supposedly, T-Mobile may allow users to charge apps to their bill which may boost revenue by 40-50%. If things like this happen, the Android will pick up momentum. The thing is that the user base is there: top-tier free apps have seen hundreds of thousands per title. Because of this, we know it's a failure of marketplace-user interaction as opposed to the platform itself (as users are downloading insane amounts of apps, they just aren't paid apps).

 

[cooolone2]

Simple Mathematics... the MORE Android phone sell, the MORE developers will want to have access to those potential customers. Android based phones will increase market share over the next year, Samsung has projections reaching 30% of their handset sales to the Android market, so patience...
We will be noticed, lol.