Android Developer talks about his success

> 7) 24-hour return rate – I have read multiple stories that the 24 hour return rate hurts sales.  In a way, it does but it’s not bad.  On average I get a 5% return rate a day.  However, I would rather have the ability for users to test applications and then decide whether to keep them or not.  One of the reasons why iPhone apps may generate more is because of users buying stupid apps and having no way to refund them.  This is a reason why fart apps do so well on iOS and not on Android.  Most of them will be refunded.  Apple does not dare to implement such a feature for the iPhone knowing for sure this will hurt app sales.  They try to protect revenue stream for developers and not for users.  As a developer, you won’t care, but it’s bad business to always try to trick users into buying apps. Very interesting article from an Android developer. I keep complaining that we never hear from Android developers about their success stories selling apps. This guy has obviously done fairly well, though it appears that he is on the extreme high-end of success for this platform. Way above the norm. And yet he’s making nowhere near what a successful iPhone developer would make.

Still, I was convinced that NO ONE was making money as an Android developer, and that’s obviously not true.

His thoughts in the quoted passage above about the 24-hour return rate are off the mark, I believe. I don’t think anyone tries to trick users into buying fart apps on iOS. It’s pretty obvious from the previews and the reviews whether or not an app is any good. And Apple does a fairly good job of rejecting apps that claim to be something they are not. Sure, there are apps I’ve downloaded that I end up not using much, but with a $.99 price point for most of those, it’s hard to get worked up about it. I don’t think a 24-hour return period would make that much of a difference to most users. Meanwhile, Google’s lack of concern for the revenue stream of developers is a serious issue that continues to keep most serious programmers away from this platform.

I’m sure this developer would argue that his success is a clear sign that Android is going to be a viable platform for developers for years to come, and that it’s only going to get better. But from what I’ve been reading lately, it appears that Google is poised to kick Android developers to the curb in favor of a web-only Chrome platform as soon as it can possibly get away with it. So I’d say the development ecosystem for Android is pretty far from a good investment of a developer’s time.