Android Market Continues to Fail

Last week I played a what if scenario of what might be going on within Google regarding the tie-up between Android Market and Google Checkout. I did this while keeping one eye on the goings on with Apple's iPhone app store, and fretted that Google is missing out. This article tells me the grass on the other side is not so green, both in colour and in regards to money.

It isn't surprising that a large corporation would give less than individual care to a large body of customers, both users and merchants (merchants are the app developers). For them it is a consequence of the "benefits" of scale. I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is when that corporation crosses the line from minimal or automated service to neglect or even abuse of its customers. App developers are customers. If the comments in the TechCrunch article are to be believed, Apple may have crossed that line.

Meanwhile back in the Android universe things are different but not much better. Google has been getting more communicative with the developer community although not much has yet changed. Google Checkout remains a problem that is likely to continue. An expansion of Google Checkout, and the Android Market, to more countries and currencies has been promised by Google for the near future, but there is no indication that any of the existing problems will be addressed.

One thing I learned from working with the world's largest telephone companies is how fine the line is between a mass-market phenomenon and a small niche. To achieve high penetration with a new service or feature the path for the customer must be near frictionless. One grain of sand on that teflon slide and you can over 90% of your prospects. As they say with regard to phone features, if you so much as require the user to press one button to use the service you will lose 3/4 of them. As the complexity of the user interface increases, numbers plummit even further.

Let's apply this thinking to Android:

1. Sign up with T-Mobile: Small player in the US market and a secondary operator in most markets outside of Germany. This is the first grain of sand.
2. Sign a contract to get the fancy new G1 smart phone: Ok, this one isn't too onerous once the carrier has been selected so let's give this a pass.
3. Learn to deal with the unreliable Android Market and all of its growing pains. The friction to begin playing with the market is low but when they get burned by problems with either free or paid apps many will never return.
4. Sign up with Google Checkout: There is clearly resistance from users to sign up for yet another and lesser-known payment system. This is more like a large pebble than a sand grain. Results in the Android Market seem to bear this out.
5. Navigate foreign currency exchange: Google Checkout's insistence on posting pricing in the merchant's home currency is another grain of sand. This is especially a problem in the US where most people never deal with other currencies and have never held a passport.
   

As a prospective merchant on the Android Market and with a fairly-successful free app, I am losing patience. Even the best paid apps on the Android Market have sold no more than a few thousand units. The majority have sold far fewer than that. Android Market is a sandbox for hobbyists not businesses. Those grains of sand have added up and scared off the vast majority of T-Mobile's approximately 1 million G1 users. Despite its faults this is one thing Apple got right with iPhone: the payment path for apps is near frictionless, and therefore lucrative.

In my own company we continue to play with the Android platform since it enables certain classes of applications that cannot be done with its rivals. However for the present we have shelved all plans to make a business of it.