Why does Android automatically limit the Market?

[Zebulon]

I love both of my Android devices (Samsung Mesmerize and Viewsonic G-Tablet), but I hate that apps that show up for one device in the market don't show up in the other. On top of that, the G-Tablet's Market is usually missing lots of apps that will run just fine on it.

For example, I downloaded Cordy on my phone, which was pretty fun, but hard to play on the small screen. I looked it up on the G-Tab, and nothing. I had to port it over from my phone, which is a pain. On top of that, there are apps like Samurai II or History: Great battles, which don't show up on either. That means if I want to play a game that will work fine on my device, I have to go through some sort of file-sharing site and download it that way. I would be happy to buy these apps, and I would prefer to do it that way, but I don't have the option.

Why won't Google just let us use our own trial and error when it comes to apps? Most apps that I see have warnings as to what they will or won't work with, and as long as the Market retains its refund policy, it seems like it would be a no-harm-no-foul situation.

Is there some sort of a petition that we can sign that will show Google that we are willing to decide for ourselves which apps we want to download?

 

[AngryHatter]

Allowing people to try apps not meant for their device is asking for a bazillion complaints, emails, et cetera.
A no brainer.

 

[Zebulon]

Allowing people to try apps not meant for their device is asking for a bazillion complaints, emails, et cetera.
A no brainer.

I get that there is potential for that to happen, but it also seems like the app devs would make enough money from the additional sales that it would be worth their time.

 

[ambientdroid]

I get that there is potential for that to happen, but it also seems like the app devs would make enough money from the additional sales that it would be worth their time.

That's why they update their apps to include new devices as they figure out how to support them.

Much better than your app getting a bad rep for having problems.

 

[alostpacket]

★☆☆☆☆
This thread FC'd my G1 multiple times!!!!!

 

[takeshi]

I get that there is potential for that to happen, but it also seems like the app devs would make enough money from the additional sales that it would be worth their time.

Citation? Or is this yet more armchair industry analysis?

 

[alostpacket]

I get that there is potential for that to happen, but it also seems like the app devs would make enough money from the additional sales that it would be worth their time.

While my other post was a joke, it would be the kind of comments you would start seeing, I can garuntee you. Because it happened to me.

The reason this is the case is several-fold:

1) The APIs changed drastically from 1.6-2.0 especially contacts, accounts, and bluetooth. There are some things you just can't do on older phones. I ended up stopping supporting 1.5 and 1.6 on Listables because it was such a nightmare to maintain 2 separate codebases for the contacts and the Bluetooth barely worked at all. It was literally an extra 2000 lines of code or more.

2) Performance changed drastically from 2.1->2.2

3) Audio and Media handling changed a lot from 2.2->2.3

4) Since 1.5 and 1.6 are basically* the G1, HTC Hero(?), HTC MyTouch, HTC Magic, Moto Cliq, Moto Dext, and a few other old phones, you almost can garuntee will be very low power/cpu/memory and only account for about 5% of the total market.

There are a ton of other reasons, but those are just a few common ones.

To give you a sense of just how different things are too, here's what changed from 2.0->2.1

API Differences between 6 and 7

Every class listed there on the bottom left changed or is new(bolded).


Anyways, hope that gives some insight as to why it works this way. And why as a dev I appreciate it.


*List is off the top of my head, might not be perfect

 

[alostpacket]

One more link that might be helpful:

Platform Versions | Android Developers

 

[MyNamesTooLong]

I get that there is potential for that to happen, but it also seems like the app devs would make enough money from the additional sales that it would be worth their time.

NO, just no...there is no way that a bunch of 1 star reviews and bad comments would boost sales. Do you think I would have a ton of business flowing through if everyone whom I did an oil change fors cars blew up? No bad publicity/rep=less business.

 

[Zebulon]

I suppose that I might be overestimating the average app buyer in thinking that they wouldn't give a bad review for an app not compatible with their device.

 

[DenverRalphy]

I suppose that I might be overestimating the average app buyer in thinking that they wouldn't give a bad review for an app not compatible with their device.

It happens all the time. The app's description can clearly state which devices or OS level it's designed for, and yet a horde of morons who's devices or OS is not compatible will install it anyway, then 1star it when for some unexplained reason (despite it already being well documented in the product description) it doesn't work on their device.

The majority of Android users typically 1star any app for any fickle reason. Rarely for a legitimate reason.

It goes the opposite direction too... mediocre apps will get 5 star ratings.

I myself rarely give 5 star ratings, and only once or twice ever 1 star.

 

[ScottColbert]

I suppose that I might be overestimating the average app buyer in thinking that they wouldn't give a bad review for an app not compatible with their device.

Have you ever seen app reviews on the Apple app store from reviewers who don't read that X app is only compatible with version 4.0 and above iOS? Or even for 3G devices and above?

Same thing with Android reviews. Look at the reviews for the free app of the day on Amazon-also the same thing.

 

[sonofaresiii]

I amuse myself by thinking about how those people are going around saying "Man, like half the apps I download never work! What a crock!"