Ok, I am looking at an online Android/iPhone app builder. They either offer the option to build one for free with unlimited downloads or you can pay yearly with different tiers for different download limits. The difference being that the free one has ads.
Anyways, when asked about just creating the app with their site, then hosting it on your own server and having everyone download it from there instead of paying the yearly fees, the site owner made this statement.
" my personal opinion in the long run you will pay more in this case because every time when apple releaes new iOS (like 6 now) or android has new phone (like samsung galaxy S 3 now) you will have to purchase new binary code from us that supports the latest updates/fixes."
Is this true? I don't see how each new device that comes out will require an update in your app.
Also, as stated, if you pay the yearly fee for the lowest amount of downloads, I assume they can only track downloads from Google Play or the Apple app store. I don't see any way they can track downloads from my own server hosting the .apk file. Anyone have any insight on this to correct me if I'm wrong?
For the record, I'm just looking to develop an app to play my Shoutcast Streaming audio station. I make no profit on the station, so have no capital to spend over $1K a year to have an Android and iPhone app. I mainly want to give it to my friends, and make it available to anyone who visits my Website. I really like the design that I did with this site, and am willing to pay something for it, just not worth $1K./year....
Anybody?
Have you tried installing the official Android Software Development Kit on your computer, and making the app yourself? You don't need to use an online service, and you choose exactly what gets compiled into the apk (ads, Google analytics, etc.).
post-mortem said:
Have you tried installing the official Android Software Development Kit on your computer, and making the app yourself? You don't need to use an online service, and you choose exactly what gets compiled into the apk (ads, Google analytics, etc.).
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Thank you for the reply.
I actually do have the SDK installed, and am looking into what it takes to make my own app. But, don't I have to know xml and Java to create apps using the SDK?
You do need to know those two languages.
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The Lepricon said:
But, don't I have to know xml and Java to create apps using the SDK?
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That online service allows you to write apps without knowing xml or Java?
post-mortem said:
That online service allows you to write apps without knowing xml or Java?
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Yes, it's kind of like Appinventor, all visual, just assemble the parts and stuff.
It's nice, just kinda pricey. I once posted the job on freelancer.com and got offers for about as much as this company is asking, and with freelancer I would have owned the app afterwards.
But, again, it's kinda hard to foot the bill when it's a non profit app.
Ok, I'm off to learn XML and Java.......
Oh, almost forgot.... the original questions...
" my personal opinion in the long run you will pay more in this case because every time when apple releaes new iOS (like 6 now) or android has new phone (like samsung galaxy S 3 now) you will have to purchase new binary code from us that supports the latest updates/fixes."
Is this true? I don't see how each new device that comes out will require an update in your app.
Also, as stated, if you pay the yearly fee for the lowest amount of downloads, I assume they can only track downloads from Google Play or the Apple app store. I don't see any way they can track downloads from my own server hosting the .apk file. Anyone have any insight on this to correct me if I'm wrong?
any ideas anyone?
I think he means every time Google releases an update to Android (updated OS, not new device). So, for example, you build your app to run on Jelly Bean. But when Key Lime Pie comes out, your app may not work as expected on those devices running KLP. Then, you'd have to pay them to recompile your app with updated binaries, or risk losing market share.
If your app is really simple and would run fine on Android 2.2 and up, then that "purchase new binary" thing is not applicable.
But, hell, if you're willing to learn XML & Java... go for it!
Related
I've got a simple question that perhaps somebody could answer. I know that there are some alternative markets available on the net...some of which look exactly like the android market. I was curious to know if there is some kinda open source project (or the like) for a custom alternative market.
The reason I ask is because it would come in great handy for my business. We have a few in-house apps that are currently distributed to managers as APKs via email. It would be great if we could have a central market for which managers can update our apps from as opposed to manually sending them out, at which point they must be installed manually.
I thought I saw something a while back about some type of market framework, but now I can't find any reference to it.
Any information on this subject would be greatly appreciated!
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I'm not sure that I've understood completely what you meant, but you can check out Handster or the new Facebook-based Market - ESDN.
I think he is thinking of an app that would allow him to distribute apks to "in-house" business phones.
There are lots of "market-like" apps out there - SlideME, Amazon Appstore, Handster, etc. I haven't seen or heard of any market software that is open-source, however.
Alrighty...I guess it was worth a shot. Though it would be pretty cool if something like that existed. Thanks for the replies guys.
PutterPlace said:
I've got a simple question that perhaps somebody could answer. I know that there are some alternative markets available on the net...some of which look exactly like the android market. I was curious to know if there is some kinda open source project (or the like) for a custom alternative market.
The reason I ask is because it would come in great handy for my business. We have a few in-house apps that are currently distributed to managers as APKs via email. It would be great if we could have a central market for which managers can update our apps from as opposed to manually sending them out, at which point they must be installed manually.
I thought I saw something a while back about some type of market framework, but now I can't find any reference to it.
Any information on this subject would be greatly appreciated!
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you wish, you can try this..
http://www.filesonic.com/file/1149960741
While that is an alternative market, it's not exactly what I was looking for. I'm looking for an open source alternative which would enable me to use my own repository.
I think my search has ended though...I came across an open source project call aptoide:aptoide.com
It does enable me to setup my own repository, and I think that's what I'll be going with.
Interesting... looks like I'll be adding a new element to my primary source server as well.
An alternative would be to use dropbox and allow your people to sideload the apps. The phones would have to be provisioned to do so, however.
AppBrain is real good.
Aptoid and apktor - google for them.
Aptoid.com have a php script to generate xml file for android clients, but somehow it did not work for me.
See aptoid.com server section.
Im thinking about python script, but i dont have any programming skills
Dude just go to blapkmarket.com
Thats it. Your problems are solved
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Moving to Q&A
I recently discovered (and published an app on) moborobo market. It looks interesting.
Another recent market I tried is opera market.
Hello, i have a scenario where i need to purchase nearly 50 licenses of a sw from Android Market, for 50 Android phones that i will give to my users.
Im very confused, how should i do that, since to enter market you need a google account? I can't spend my days creating accounts for all users...
Thanks for any suggestion!
Any Suggestion?
You could contact the developer and ask. Or contact Android Market support and ask them what to do for bulk licensing. They may be able to give you a solution.
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yes i contacted developer, no corporate licensing is allowed, they suggested me to buy all the licenses using the same gmail account, but doing that dozens of times would be an incredible waste of time!
which is the best way to contact Android Market support?
you're assuming that the support center would answer you, which they haven't deemed necessary for any of my requests so far... :/
cool, so basically i'm stuck unless any of you have other ideas...
Android really lacks from business point of view...
up? any news/idea?
Well I think the developer(s) will have my head for this but you can use AirDroid (check it in Market) to export the license app from the phone to a pc, (and back to the phone to the phone in a folder for safe keeping if you wish). After doing so, you can simply transfer the APK file from the PC (or from the directory on the phone where you might have saved it) to all your employees phones by whatever means you wish, be it bluetooth, usb, or through AirDroid again.
Was just wondering what peoples thoughts were on using the Android Licensing copy protection in their apps? Do you use it and do you spend a lot of time on it or have any creative ways to help enforce it?
As we all know any kind of drm will always be cracked but I just wanted to know if people found it worthwhile to have..
I'm using In-app-billing, because I found that even licensed apps can be copied.
And yes, all apps can be cracked eventually, but most of the publishers of cracked apps remove them if you ask to. So that's what I'm gonna do!
Sent from my Nexus 4 running Android 4.2 JB
I don't like license checks that force you to be online, but I do like to have 'something' in place...
Recently I started working with some OEMs in India who wanted to pre-load my apps on their devices. Very exciting obviously, but I didn't know if I could trust them as I'd never heard of them.
So what I did was get the app to load a web page on one of my servers off the screen (9000%x...) so that it couldn't be seen. The page it linked to was empty, but if I wanted to I could modify the code to include a redirect that would send it to another page. Then in my 'onPageOverride' event I just said if URL = 'stopapp.htm' then do whatever it was I wanted to do.
What I actually have it do in that event is to fill the entire screen with that web page. The user then can't interact with the app underneath, but they get a message that I can create at the time saying 'This app has been illegally distributed' or whatever else I want to say. I can even forward them on to the download page if I want this way.
This works well too because if the user isn't online, the page just doesn't load and nothing happens. But if I want to stop offline use as well I can save a file in File.DirInternal and have the app check for that. 'SwitchOff.txt'. They get caught once, then they can't use the app.
Obviously this doesn't work quite like a license check, but what you *could* do with it is to have the app pop up with a message to people using an old version that's not updated. That's probably downloaded off of some file sharing site, so you could then just keep pestering them to 'update' and send them to the Play Store to do so. You can also check how many of the users on that version of your app are legitimate by looking at your Play Developer Console.
One thing to note is that the redirect URLs you use will need to be different in every version of your app that you release.
Hope this helps someone! I wish I'd done it sooner, one of my apps is all over the web grrrr...
pretty much the same as what I'm doing atm except I just ping a server in the background and display a popup if the result meets certain conditions.. I don't disable the app either as I can't be 100% certain it's pirated, instead I display a "scary" popup saying if they're using a pirated copy this is illegal etc.. your average user won't know how the popup was generated so it should be enough to make them think "someone" is onto them and go the proper route.. With the added bonus a genuine user can just press ok and carry on using the app
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Currently, none of my apps use licensing.
For one of my paid apps, about 5% of the downloads are from non-Google Play sources, meaning, I'm not seeing any revenue from those 5%.
There is an Android API, that allows developers to see which platform their app was downloaded from. So, I've been thinking about adding that hidden feature to my apps and maybe do something fun with it. But, haven't got around to it yet. My thinking has been that if somebody downloaded a pirated copy of my app, then they probably weren't going to pay for it in the first place. And, hopefully, they will tell their friends about it and maybe one of them will actually purchase it through Google Play.
I already have all my licensing code in place and commented out. Since my app is pretty new I want to see how it does before adding licensing. Since the app is free and income is from IAP its not too bad. I'd only turn on licensing in the next release if I see a pressing need for it.
Currently, none of my apps use licensing.
Hi, we are launching a new platform to allow app and game developers to get real time user feedback and monetize with every game uninstall. So, hold your breath…OR…
If you prefer to get an earlier test drive, we are opening a limited BETA for developers. Drop us a line and tell us how many daily uninstalls you have and let us know if you are interested to take part in the BETA or if you have any other question. Our email is: [email protected]
Happy New Year!
Ben
ben910 said:
Hi, we are launching a new platform to allow app and game developers to get real time user feedback and monetize with every game uninstall. So, hold your breath…OR…
If you prefer to get an earlier test drive, we are opening a limited BETA for developers. Drop us a line and tell us how many daily uninstalls you have and let us know if you are interested to take part in the BETA or if you have any other question. Our email is: [email protected]
Happy New Year!
Ben
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How exactly are you monetizing uninstalls? Wont that be very annoying for the user? First they hate my app and don't want it, and then they need to watch some type of ad too? Doesn't sound like a good way to get good reviews...
Exactly my thoughts
Uninstall Monetization
$$$$$$$$$
Actually find a new way wanted your opinion about.
I have my flag app with over 1M install called Signal Boosters (Fred Baker)
I was trying to monetize creating my own offerwall and taking offers from the networks, long story, that didn't really hit the jackpot for me.
I had a huge problem of uninstalls (70%) since the walls didn't really work so I got really interested in the uninstall event and how to capture it.
Over a year I was able to capture the uninstall event using and launch a browser at the moment of uninstallation without leaving any traces or processes running on the devices afterwards (no trojans or anything that gets you banned)
(I saw some very popular and known apps use this implementation to survey the users that uninstalled and that was my inspiration)
I wasn't sure how to use it without pissing off someone and if it's actually allowed so I integrated it in my app and never talked to anyone about it.
A month ago or so I came across a company called APPJOLT doing exactly that.
I registered and entered their dashboard and saw they developed a whole system around this technique with the purpose to offer your users an incentive to come back to your app or cross-promote to other apps.
They have an option for free cross-promotion campaign so it hit me right away I can use their system with a CPI offer I took for my offerwall from one of the networks, so at the moment of uninstall it will show the offer and I will get paid for it.
I couldn't believe it but it worked, I see almost 1K uninstalls a day and generate around 70 conversions which generates $30-50 a day.
Not sure if I hit gold or not, just wanted to ask the members of this forum how can I improve this flow? or am I missing anything?
$$$$$$$$$
Please be aware that it might be against google policy. There is no notification about that your app has been uninstalled (or the uninstallation started), so they use background service that checkes if the user is currently trying to uninstall your app. Also, the earnings reported here are very high (eCPM $30 - $50), while ad networks pay usually between $1 - $3 for interstitial ads, I don't think you can get such high eCPM for uninstallations, I would expect something at least 10x lower.
Cool idea but it's hard to make it practical and implement it. So, how exactly are you monetizing from uninstalls I wonder..
I can guaranty you that you will get A LOT of 1 star. I will for sure install the game again just to give it 1 star.
Hi guys, not sure if this is the right place to do this but i've got a question i hope i can get clarified here with you experts
I am a PM that is in charge of a managing the delivery and development of a business's mobile application. Recently the company is looking to get rid of the incumbent developer due to unprofessional-ism and exorbitant fees. The other technology partner i am directly engaging with is a newly appointed development house and is tasked to clone the app and add additional features the incumbent refuses to add on.
Come launch date, the business requires the new app to replace the old app. To the existing customer base, the goal is to ensure that the transition is as seamless as possible. They are hoping that when existing users open the app, they will be prompted to install an update where the old one is then replaced with the old one. As such, is it possible for the new technology partners to this? What are the necessary steps required? I am trying to ensure that all necessary precautions and dependencies are covered to ensure any potential backlash / fallout. Is it as simple as obtaining the app certificate and ensuring the apk is named exactly the same? Any advice would be helpful.
The worst case scenario here would be to get the users to reinstall the app entirely or treat it as a completely separate app. :crying:
You need the signature keys of your first developer to sign the new APK which needs to have the same package name. And access to the dev console. Then you can upload the new app which will be treated as every other update by Google Play. Without changing the first app you won't be able to force the users to update AFAIK.
Fellhuhn said:
You need the signature keys of your first developer to sign the new APK which needs to have the same package name. And access to the dev console. Then you can upload the new app which will be treated as every other update by Google Play. Without changing the first app you won't be able to force the users to update AFAIK.
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Hi thanks for the reply. Much appreciated! Would this be similar for iOS as well?
Relating to the last statement. What do you mean by "without changing the first app.."
androFRUST said:
Hi thanks for the reply. Much appreciated! Would this be similar for iOS as well?
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I don't have enough experience with iOS to comment on that.
Relating to the last statement. What do you mean by "without changing the first app.."
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While you can upload a new version of the same app the users would still have to manually (or automatically if their device is configured that way) download it. Google released a "forced update" API a while ago. If that is included in your old app that might help. Otherwise you would have to add it manually which would require access to the source code. But then the users would have to manually update too so it would be quite useless.
So one way to force them to update is to disable all APIs the app might use but that might alienate the users as they have no clue why it stopped working. So as long as you have no notification system that is working right now you have to depend on your users updating.