Do you get confused when you have to go to AVG's web site to download there application? Then have to go to a different web page to download Itunes.. or winamp... or any application.

Really... did apple pay you to wright this article?

you can download Windows XP / Vista and Windows Mobile apps from few hundred places... so ??

one should and must be able to get/download apps from when ever they like ...

guess you have never heard of Download.com / Filehippo.com / Softpedia.com / freewarepocketpc.net / and few hundreds others ??

For those who find "choice" to be "confusing"... then they can just stick with the Google Android Market and pretend the others don't exist. For those of us who are more frugal, or who don't find options to be confusing, we welcome the open market.

Please, grow a brain.

Best,
BMM

P.S. Patronizing your users and assuming they can't be trusted to deal with consumer-grade technology alienates and drives people away. That is exactly what Apple does. Hence, I personally vow never to buy anything Apple. Please, stop being such an Apple fangirl.

Are you equally confused when entering a standard Amercian shopping mall on a mission to buy a pair of shoes?

Hypothetically, if you entered the mall and every store was a Dillard's, how would you feel? Relieved knowing that at least most of the inventory within the stores is the same and provides predominantly good quality shoes or FREAKED OUT BECAUSE EVERY STORE IS A DILLARDS! . . . and you're trying to find that perfect pair of [style/brand] to where to the [event]

a) there is only one Market app on your G1 by default.
b) and yes there is option to go shop around...

Not everybody has surrender its ability to think.

you might wonder why the first link in this article does not link to the Google Android Market... there's just a slash missing

http://www.android.com/market/

d

This looks like it will also be an issue for Android apps only on a larger scale, where not only will prices change on 1 store but will be available at multiple stores for different prices at the same time.

Now savvy shoppers (and capitalists) will take this in stride, realizing that they may get a higher price on one app than other people - and a lower price on a different app, and may even 'shop around' to find the best price. Still there will be a lot of less savvy shoppers who will just feel cheated.

Watching this sort of free market self organize on a regular basis is going to be a roller coaster ride. There will definitely be some interesting studies published for those interested in economics theory.

I'm a committed PocketPC user, or I AM a PocketPC (to buzz correctly) and that company's always been sub par.

Sorry Sarah, you fail

But having multiple apps store is definitely confusing. Google should make the google market place the only place to get apps.

Honestly. I can't imagine a Iphone user feeling cheated by paying to much for something.

It's just retail business as usual. Nothing interesting. Supply and demand.

Throw out new product, apps, on promotion, clear out old inventory with specials.

The success of application content and competition will be directly proportional, obviously, to the amout of market in-roads Google based smartphones make.

Why all the confusion?

is "open" still a way to compete?

Given the success of the iPhone, this is obviously pretty relevant. Never before has such a closed and dictatorial smartphone seen such wide release. Look at the ways it locked people down:

No choice of carrier.
No choice of contract.
No choice of software store.
No choice of price.

Yet people suck it up like its the best thing since sliced bread.

The obvious conclusion is that people who buy iPhones are idiots. On the other hand millions of people buy iPhones. They cant all be idiots, can they?

The answer is that, of course, they can be, and that people in general are stupid.

Apple is successful because they sell to stupid people, and a wise company would replicate their methods. As PT Barnum implied, idiots is the fastest growing consumer segment, and of course a fool and his money is soon parted, meaning in the end its the easiest to get idiots to buy things from you.

I therefore propose that the next cellphone OS maker (Palm maybe) should make sure the OS is very purty, has lots of gimmicks and maybe shiny lights and mirrors, and can only dial one number by hitting the phone with your fist.

They will sell at least 7 million...

and second, why would you purchase *any* app for android?? chances are, it's going to be crap, as the OSS community almost always has an equivalent or better.

those that bought an Android phone are more than likely doing so for open-ness. we know what we're doing.

My point was made, all be it with improper spelling...

"We love that Google has gone the open route with Android, but Apple has been successful doing just the opposite. That makes us wonder: is "open" still a way to compete?"

But it's nice to see a discussion brewing on the topic, nonetheless.

;-)

Somehow, Sarah, I think consumers will manage to figure this out.

This is a good thing.

-bZj

From http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/10/android-market-now-available-for-users.html :
"If you're a developer, you will be able to register and upload your applications starting next Monday, 2008-10-27, when we've wrapped up a few final details."

Developers would not be flocking to other street-side stores if google had prepped the real store in time for the launch. I find it quite shocking that Google held back on these details until after the launch. Google "submit android app" and you'll see a plethora of sites/forums where frustrated developers are scrambling to find a damn link to this market place! I certainly was angered. Our G1 download page was put up simply because we had no way to put our app into the store.

Android doesn't have that problem, so instead of shutting out competition with anything that apple (or google, or t-mobile,...) has a stake in, Andriod will let the best apps win.

From http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/10/android-market-now-available-for-users.html :
"If you're a developer, you will be able to register and upload your applications starting next Monday, 2008-10-27, when we've wrapped up a few final details."

Developers would not be flocking to other street-side stores if google had prepped the real store in time for the launch. I find it quite shocking that Google held back on these details until after the launch. Google "submit android app" and you'll see a plethora of sites/forums where frustrated developers are scrambling to find a damn link to this market place! I certainly was angered. Our G1 download page (boorah.com/g1.html) was put up simply because we had no way to put our app into the store.

But for the thinking person, the entire idea of the open market is the killer app. Remember who brought the Smart Phone to the market and how they got there: Palm. Sure Palm screwed it up because they didn't reinvest in upgrading the OS. But tens of thousands of developers sold many millions of apps by allowing end users to download, try and then buy their apps. My four year old Treo 650 running Palm OS still blows away every single iPhone I've had shoved in my face. Why? I have killer apps, well over 200 of them. The iPhone users were clueless about functionality. Their perspective is "web, use the web!" In the meantime I pull up very useful information in a total of 20 seconds while they struggle for 2 mins to do the same (Dallas airport - flight status). And the same story times 20.

So stick with the Evil Empire Sarah. As for me? Baaaaaaaah! Open market is the ONLY way to go.

Now just about every smart phone provides a way to install third party apps and provides functionality beyond just making phone calls. Recent user surveys of smart phone users have illustrated that iPhone users are more likely to use the advanced functionality of their phone. The question then becomes why? I believe the answer is not that people are idiots, though most are, but because the perceived effort outweighs the expected benefits.

For Android based phones to be a serious competitor to the iPhone they are going to face a number of hurdles. One of these is ensuring that there is an easy way of determining that applications will either run correctly on Android phones with different screens and input devices (keypad vs. touchscreen), remember Android is an OS+Framework and not a actual device. The other is keeping making it easy to find and install third-party software. Google's App Store helps but my guess is that people are going to decide that it's too much effort to compare all of the different apps, with different features, and different price points across different app stores. People will mainly just pick the one that is easiest to use.

Now if Google could only partner with a company that specialized in search, then they could show the user the app store with the top rated software in the category they wanted at the best price.

Why don't we have open-source cars? Everyone could contribute a piece to it, and individuals could innovate like crazy on their piece, but I don't think I'd care to have one--even though Fred thinks that me and ten million other folks are complete idiots that would buy anything that's shiny.

Competition is great, and I'm truly glad that Apple is getting some, but "open source" says to me "disorganized and complicated"--as in umpteen different flavors of Linux. Much as some people don't want to admit it, creating a product that has tight integration and "synergy" between the hardware and software designs can result in some very usable systems that "open" will find it difficult to duplicate.

But, sorry, you have to choose your own way. In this case, between a system where someone chooses for you what apps you can get, if you get to keep them, and how you get them (kind of like your mom) versus having choices of what you want, where you get them, and who has the best deal (kind of like real life).

Choice is good.

Do we really want to spend so much time when buying apps also? Those teeny weeny apps for you phone. I mean, think about it, if you have have to buy apps now you have to research first on the desktop and then buy on the phone. Yes yes, we can browse on the phone, but can we really spend so much time on the phone, researching? I doubt it.

I think Time is Money, and yes, having options is good, but too many turns down a lot of people.

I would still vote for the Apple AppStore model. And this article really says that.

Baaaaaaaaah!

"I see a lot of you are still stuck in the free market doctrine. This "free market is always the best for consumers" econo-political hypothesis has been proven naive, if not downright dangerously fundamentalistic, by the present financial crisis. I know it's hard to deprogram ourselves from the prevail ideology that was hammered into our heads since childhood, *****but it's time to think for ourselves****** and face the new reality."

And what you don't realize is that all of these solutions rely greatly on open source. Yes there are proprietary point solutions buried into them - Nuance's speech recognition engines are a great point. But all of those point solutions are running on Industrial strength Linux, using MySQL or PostgreSQL databases, with web caching performed by Squid. Etc etc.

So your statement of "but "open source" says to me "disorganized and complicated"--as in umpteen different flavors of Linux. Much as some people don't want to admit it, creating a product that has tight integration and "synergy" between the hardware and software designs can result in some very usable systems that "open" will find it difficult to duplicate."

Doesn't ring true. I have no problem with it until you state that open will find it difficult to duplicate. All of what runs these massive systems is on open systems. Not Apple. Note the fastest computers in the world are all Linux systems. There is a reason for it.

If you want to buy all Sony or all Apple, so be it. But don't think for one second that the world benefits more from proprietary approaches than open systems.

Written using Mozilla Firefox 3.0.3 running on top of Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

Can I use ShopSavvy to tell me the cheapest place to buy Android apps?

An open free-market with choices on where to shop and market-competition are *highly* overrated anyhow. I prefer someone else to decide for me.

The only apps available would be the apps approved by Microsoft, the bad apps would not be available from the store.

To be on the safe, non-confusing side, if by bad luck an unauthorized apps -let says, for example, Open Office- would somehow found it way on your hard drive, Microsoft would remotely uninstall it for you.

The only way to install any unauthorized apps would be to "jailbreak" your PC, thus voiding the warranty and taking the risk of bricking it.

Seems awful? Just replace "Microsoft" by "Apple" and "PC" by "Iphone" and you have pretty much the current Iphone situation.

The "Mass market Smartphone" is still relatively new, but Apple is taking a big market share of it and setting a dangerous precedent here.

And that's the difficulty I see with Android vs. iPhone. The iPhone App Store is easy and quick to use, and has a LOT of very useful, functional apps (including flight status, by the way!). Downloading and updating couldn't be easier! A previous poster also mentioned that not many people are going to be willing to spend a lot of time and effort shopping around for a $.99 smartphone app. One-stop shopping--ala WalMart and Target and Apple--works. Like it or not, ease of use appeals to most non-geeks who make up the vast majority of consumers.

I don't think you have any idea what you're talking about. You obviously have not used the G1 device or interacted with the Android OS, at all.

"Linux may be a wonderful tool if you are technically oriented, but NOT so wonderful if you are not."

Have you used the G1 before? The device runs *on top* of Linux. You wouldn't even know it was Linux unless someone told you. Also, in case you weren't aware, Apple's OS runs on top of BSD - a *nix environment. Don't know what BSD is? Wikipedia it.

"And that's the difficulty I see with Android vs. iPhone. The iPhone App Store is easy and quick to use..."

Have you used the Android Market application that comes *pre-installed* on all the G1 devices? How much simpler do you want it to be? I don't think a thought-recognition interface has come on the market yet.

"Downloading and updating couldn't be easier!"

Ditto on Android. Find an app and click "Install." Wow. That was hard.

"Like it or not, ease of use appeals to most non-geeks who make up the vast majority of consumers."

Yet again, proof that you have likely not interacted with the Android OS.

The Apple AppStore is a great venue, but as the software companies who develop these apps grow they will want more and more control over where their products can be bought. If a user comes to your website, likes what they see, got all the info they needed, and then are redirected to a store where they can browse competing products, it's not necessarily the ideal experience developers want for their customers. They'd rather the customer purchase directly from the developer in that situation.

Yeah, that's all I have to say

i apologize for coming across as a snide ass previously, but on reading Johns post that he doesn't understnad it, i'm not sure if he does or not.

so eating some humble pie and taking a step back, i have to say first, that there is a major difference between physical goods and software. code can be shared/shipped/moved within seconds around the world. not a big deal. (though in terms of physical items, there are getting to be more and more shops like emachineshop.com that allow any used to create somethign in cad, have it machined in their shop, and they then ship it to you).

linux is one of the major players in community based projects. and the strides they've made since i last tried it out have been mind blowing. in 2002, i had to download the image (mandrake), burn it, then install it. when i got it up and running the GUI was horrible (think DOS GUIs). and nothing worked. now i can download a little installer for windows (WUBI - ubuntu for windows) and it asks me how much space to allow for a partition and re-partitions my disk accordingly. it also then appears as a "program" in my add/remove programs list (still under windows).

booting to ubuntu, my wireless nic card works automatically, my screen res is set correctly, all my drives (usb hdds, optical, card readers) are all recognized. and in about a half hour of browsing the forums i've got an application dock that has big bubbly icons that twirl in 3D when you hover over them, i've got transparency in my windows, and i've got a 3D cube for my desktop that gives me 4 working desktop spaces.

*that* is pretty amazing. oh and of course i haven't stolen a thing, and i'm entitled to upgrades for life.

The fact is, Efficient-market hypothesis will win out in the end:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient_market_hypothesis

Sam, consumers are not plunking down the big bucks for hype! They're doing it because they get a well-designed, versatile, easy-to-use product. Hype alone doesn't sell over 10,000,000 phones!

If Apple isn't your cup of tea, there are many, many other fine alternatives, the Android phone being one. But anyone who is looking for the Android phones to easily derail the iPhone is, I'm afraid, in for a disappointment.

No, seriously, I completely agree here. That's why I've started a petition to merge Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's, Target, and Walmart into one giant truly superstore and online retailer.

We're calling it Dipschitz's Department Store: Where An Educated Consumer Need Not Apply.

P.S. Happy iPhone and App Store user here, before you play the Windows Enthusiast/Linux Geek card.

People write (see that) shit, media picks up on it, shit becomes fact...

Honestly, I was nice in my 1st post... but this is retarded.

Of course Open Source is not the only answer in development, but it is usually the best peer reviewed answer.

/honest question - will the iPhone even interface with multiple micro-controllers? or even one? 'Cause I know with an open source Dev Kit and Android I can. And people will.

"We're worried that these parallel marketplaces could lead to consumer confusion"

I'm worried when I want a new LCD TV that there is over 1000 online stores and many local stores to choose from. I'm so confused, so many prices to choose from! LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly

Apple has a monopoly with the iPhone App Store. Last I heard that isn't legal.

Guess Google has decided to not go that route. Doubt they could anyway -they don't manufacture the Android phones and they don't have the hottest-selling consumer product in the world to muscle the mobile operators.

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