Silicon Shecky

So I try to read the online tech sites on a daily basis at least. I recently came across and article about the problems with Google’s Android Marketplace. I want to say that before I go into each of his points, yes there are some shortcomings with the Marketplace, but Android overall is a different creature, and if you expect it to be an iPhone clone, you are in for a rude awakening.

Garett Rogers, in his article, breaks down what he sees as wrong with the Android Marketplace. Unfortunately, this “story” is actually more of an Op/Ed piece without being clearly marked as such. Everyone is allowed their opinions, but to try and pass opinions off as unbiased new is wrong, and gives actual journalists a bad name. I make no qualms that this blog is my opinions and thoughts, and while I do try to keep it as professional as possible, and at time do reviews where I do my best to set aside my biases, I have no problem reminding people that most things are op/ed here. That being said, lets get onto his points and my counterpoints.

Garett breaks the issues he has with Android’s Marketplace to 5 items. First up  on his list is “Add a review process.” This point is good in an aspect of weeding out spam apps, but Android is an open platform, and the marketplace is just as open. This is not Apple, where you have to abide by terms that change from moment to moment, and on a whim. Also, there are user reviews (star ratings) on the apps in the Marketplace, which is a self vetting process.

Second item on Garett’s list is, “A good ratio of paid apps vs free apps is absolutely necessary.” I tend to disagree with this, and he needs to remember that a lot of the free apps, come with a small, non-obtrusive, ad-bar (Which i barely notice). Google’s money is made from advertising. From that advertising, even “free” apps make money. The thing to research is, how do these ads, and ad money translate to the developer.

Third up on the hit parade, Garett writes, “Apps need to be discoverable.” This point I couldn’t agree with more. The search function in the Android Marketplace is ok, but really needs to be improved on. I can search and while I get a good amount of semi-relevant to relevant apps, I get a lot of junk that has no relation to the words I typed in the search box. Google, being the king of search, has been disappointing in this aspect.

The next point brought up is about currency, and I really can’t argue against showing the app prices in the currency of our choosing. I have no clue how many dollars to a pound, I just want to know what my cost is in my currency.

His final point is, “Modify the return policy.” He basis this on the developer possible loosing money because of returned apps. Now I don’t know how Apple does it, or if they even allow for app returns, but toughening a return policy on apps downloaded is a tough thing to do. Its an open market, and by showing their respect for the consumer, Google looks like the consumer will wind up helping police the bad apps. Its a review process, a vetting process.

Is the Android Marketplace perfect? Not by any means. It has area that can be improved upon, but to make it go down the road of the Apple Marketplace and iTunes (Stupid piece of junk that iTunes is), leaves no room to grow, or worse, could prompt legal action. After all we all have been reading about how everyone loves suing everyone over pattens now.

Ok, so Apple wants to represent the high moral ground. While this can be called commendable, the new $2 app called Puff Puff Pass is all about smoking. You can’t have it both ways Apple.

Steve Jobs recently said something along the lines of, “If you want porn, get an Android.” Jobs scoffed at the open development and that porn apps were made for the Android phones. Now don’t think of the fact that there are apps for the iPhone/iPad from Playboy, which makes the statement somewhat laughable, not to mention that you can get porn on the iPhone through the browser. Now they have allowed an app that is all about smoking. Cigarettes, Pipes, Cigars, yes smoking. I don’t know about you, but smoking is far worse than porn, as it really is a drug that is addictive and bad for you. Now add on that kids can get this app and one has to ask, “What are your morals Apple?”

I’ve gone off a bit about Apple here and there. I flat out hate the iPhone and (max)iPad. I feel they are overrated pieces of equipment. There is much more to my dislike of Apple than just that.

Back in the 80’s Apple computers were all the rage. You had the Apple II series, then the Macintosh came out. Pricing was similar to PC prices. You got bang for the buck. Then Apple went and got rid of Steve Jobs, and it went downhill. In the mean time Jobs continued on and refined his business acumen to become the CEO he is for Apple now.

While all that happened, PCs came down in price. Microsoft was the evil empire, and Apple was a nice alternative, if not a little out of most peoples price ranges. Microsoft helped Apple avoid going out of business by investing in Apple. Then the iPod came out, and all bets were off.

Now I will disclaimer this by saying flat out, I have no affiliation with any company I mention in this piece. I don’t get pre-release items to review outside of my company’s Action Pack subscription, which the company pays for.

Now that that is over with, lets continue. The iPod was a much needed item in the marketplace. It combined with iTunes worked so well initially. The iPod still does work well. iTunes became something else. A cash cow. Proprietary file formats that would not play on non-iPod mp3 players. Digital Rights Management that would lock the song into one machine. The worst was (and still is) trying to port your bought music collection to a new PC. Still people flock to it (I use eMusic and Amazon).

Then came the iPhone, and initially, I thought it was a decent idea. I still think its a good idea, but poorly implemented. It is overly restrictive, you can only put on there Apple approved apps, and it is on a network that cannot handle the data flow. The iPad is nothing more than the iPhone in larger format. Same OS, same restrictions.

Now comes the new Apple developer rules. To put in in simple terms, you cannot write something in a non-Apple approved language, and cross compile it to run natively on the iPhone and iPad. this hurts for websites especially because of Adobe Flash, which is not nor will be supported on the iPhone or iPad. How do you get away with not supporting one of the most popular web systems out there and say that you offer the best experience? Personally if I was a developer, I would just cut Apple out. Write for the Android phones, which you can set to load non-marketplace apps. The Android OS is nice, robust and can do anything that the iPhone can. Plus it will give you control back over what you do, and show Apple that it is not the be all end all.

Speaking of Apple being the be all end all, it seems that unless you kiss Jobs rear, and only write good reviews and hype, otherwise you don’t get early access to Apple stuff. If that isn’t blackmail and a way to force good reviews to get more sales early on, then I don’t know what is. Heck it sounds to me like it should be illegal, because the bad reviews seem to get buried, so the consumer is fed incomplete information.

Don’t get me wrong, the Mac is a nice machine, and one day maybe I can afford one. while its nowhere near as secure as Apple touts, it is a machine that does just work. Unfortunately, it is too darn expensive for me right now. The bang for the buck isn’t there.

Apple is heading down a major slippery slope right now. Using lawsuits to try and stifle competition, locking out developers, lying to the public, I swear I’ve heard of these things before. Oh yeah, it was the same stuff Microsoft was doing right before it got hit with an Anti-Trust lawsuit.