How Unofficial Android App Stores Will Kill Apple’s iTunes App Store
It generally goes without saying: Apple’s iTunes App Store is an incredible success. With thousands of applications, and hundreds more being uploaded on a daily basis, it’s become and absolute dream for app fanactics. There’s tons of choice — but developers aren’t seeing the bright side of it, and many consumers have pretty much seen it all. Apple has tremendous power over what goes on at the iTunes App Store. By this I mean deleting apps, rejecting apps (and the hard work of those who coded them), and pushing developers around to abide by Apple’s demands. This of course comes in addition to earning a stake of sales from those very developers.
Let’s face it — the App Store has seen its day and taken its 15 minutes of fame. There’s too many apps, and most of all, there’s always the Napoleonic emperor (Apple Inc.) monitoring your every move. Why do I purely attack Apple’s App Store? Because they’re the most prominent and most unethical of all App Stores for mobility.
Open Source mobility is in. Consumers know what they want, and wouldn’t rather have a large corporation decide what’s appropriate or inappropriate for them. Consumers want the ability to push the limits with their devices, and utilize them to their full extent.
Case in point: Android’s new unofficial porn app store. Yes, my dear readers — it’s now a reality. And while I can sit here and put myself above what it stands for — I personally think it’s a great idea. Hell, I’ll even go ahead and say that it’s innovative. Why? Five words:
It’s what the consumers want.
If the people want it, they’ll get it. If that means spending money, then they’ll do that. People will use the unofficial app store for a few specific reasons. The first of which is that someone is finally brave enough to produce such a store, and the second of what is that sex sells. This is already a success, and we’re just learning about it today. You know what’s better? There isn’t anyone telling you “no”.
It’s this type of freedom that will eventually drive consumers to Android. And while many consumers won’t drop their iPhones for this porn app store, for example, they’ll certainly think twice about going back to Apple.
November 28th, 2009 at 5:00 am
So the App Store is “unethical”, but the Android Pron Store is “a great idea”, huh?
I let that go because it’s just a sad reflection on how desperate the Android fanboi is getting to prove the inherent superiority and inevitable dominance of the Google OS.
What I won’t let go is the pure ignorance of what is actually going on in regards to Apps in the Apple Eco system.
With WebKit and the latest iPhone OS Apple is actually pushing in a direction where developers can built applications that can be installed on the phone without any approval by Apple or anybody else.
David Kaneda is currently busy developing his WebKit based Twitter client, “PieGuy” is a pacman style game that uses the touch screen and database of the phone. It’s obvious that a Pron Store, which you seem to regard as the pinnacle and pride of any OS market, would not be difficult to build.
So much for the validity of your argument that only Android can provide what consumers want…
November 28th, 2009 at 5:53 am
@Bonsai: I would have to agree with you partially about utilizing Webkit for an unofficial app store alternative if there wasn’t an ironic twist to Apple’s attempt: Webkit is Open Source and every change that Apple wants to make for an advantage, they have to fork it over right back to the community. What that means, unfortunately for Apple, is that all the web apps that people make for the iPhone (installed or online) will get the added advantage of working with Android devices with little to no modification. There are already several iPhone compatible sites on the Net that work wonderfully with Android. Facebook used to have their own address specifically for iphone (iphone.facebook.com), but now that Android phones can utilize the same site without any changes to the site or phone, they’ve renamed the url to touch.facebook.com.
I do see web apps as a new workaround to Apple’s Darth Vader grip on their app store, but I also see developers going out of their way to ensure the apps work on Android devices too; especially since Android phones make up 25% of all mobile web traffic (up from just 4% 10 months ago; admob). However, there will be some mobile app pages that the iPhone won’t get to use; namely, mobile apps that integrate Adobe Flash. Apple doesn’t seem to want its customers utilizing the most used media rich application in the world; probably to pump up Steve Job’s ego.
The writer is right about alternative app stores springing up in the place of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Market (although he didn’t specify Google, this will happen) but you’re wrong to think that the iPhone is going to have some superiority using an Open Source web engine framework. It’ll just make apps even easier to develop. The consumer will unfortunately pick the phone with the lower price tag just as they do with choosing PCs over Macs. But hey, we can thank Apple for taking others’ pre-existing technology, combining it in a metal and glass case, and charging us 3x the normal rate of a smartphone (initially) only to take a dump on us developers and users and dictate how we can and cannot use our expensive paper weight.
Feeling pretty let down by a persuasive dictator (jobs), there’s an app for that, and it runs on Android too!
November 28th, 2009 at 6:09 am
Huh? There is no “ironic twist” in Apples involvement in WebKit, it’s always been meant to be platform agnostic.
Other than proprietary, closed Flash, of course…
November 28th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Saying this article and Yeshua’s comments are delusional is an understatement. Bonsai is correct. There is a reality distortion field in full effect and this time it’s NOT coming from Apple. Right now, this moment, Android has significant challenges ahead that will prevent it from gaining crtical mass and attaining any reasonable comparison to the kind of real business that is occuring on Apple’s App Store. Simply saying something is the future doesn’t actually cause it to happen. Start doing factual research, and garner real data to project some trends.
I’m hoping Android Market is doing much better sales volume since a couple of months ago when Larva Labs posted their sales figures (later criticising the new Market’s damaging return policy and nascent, yet serious, piracy issues) and more recently when Gameloft noted that they are scaling back development in light of poor sales.
I’m very concerned that the delusional may control the course of public opinion until the problems Android has will be far more damaging when they can no longer be ignored. We’re getting there people. You can cite a growing amount of unaswered comments in Android discussion groups, from developers looking for assurance and getting none.
This is almost as suspensful as an Alfred Hitchcock film with a bomb underneath the dinner table.
November 29th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Android is Java. Meaning a virtuall machine. Meaning a memory hog. At 128 MB good luck getting games or applications to match the iphone/touch.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
@federico android also runs native C/C++ code
it’s obvious that you never used an android device esspecially not the droid
@article
“Consumers know what they want, and wouldn’t rather have a large corporation decide what’s appropriate or inappropriate for them”
It’s not that easy. On video game consoles for example there hasn’t been any outrage because the manufacturer decides everything for you.
“The first of which is that someone is finally brave enough to produce such a store”
There have always been unofficial app stores for android like SlideMe but they had not much success so far
In my opinion Android needs at least two app stores. One that it tightly controlled like iTunes and one wild west appstore so everybody is happy.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
@Anonymous:
First, there has been a lof of controversy over the content of some video games.
Second, by saying “someone is finally brave enough to produce such a store,” the author refers to a porn store. Not just any third-party app store.
Basically, what the author is trying to say and what the article comes down to is that no matter how good the iPhone is or what Apple is doing to help developers, Apple will never in a million years would allow a second app store within the App Store, much less if it was a porn app store. That censoring and lack of freedom has kept many users from switching to the iPhone and has definitely angered many developers.
Why do you think so many people have jailbroken their devices?
December 8th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
i think the apps market is only gonna grow , whether you like it or not , i did grab mobilepornapps/com as a domain for the future , as well as gphonesex/com , yes its true sex does sell no doubt