I love those moments in life that make you think
everything just changed. Android was huge in 2010,
with growth numbers to prove it, but the app store is its Achilles' heel.
Android Market is brilliant at many things, but selling apps unfortunately isn't one of them. Developers have struggled to make money on the Android platform with freemium seeming like the only way generate revenue, but only if you have a
huge brand. No revenue means a lack of premium quality apps in Android Market, something that you didn't really notice when mobile was all about smartphones, but that will become much more obvious as the number of Android tablets increase.
Sony's announcement of a
Playstation Suite app game store for Android means that
everything just changed. There's genius behind Sony's decision to make the store "hardware-neutral", which is a pretty big step for the company when you consider that gaming has been all about hardware for years, because it means that all Android users will have access to to Playstation Suite. Sony's store will also attract major game developers in a way that Android Market hasn't been able to. Fragmentation will still be an issue with
Engadget reporting that it will only be available for
Gingerbread level Android, but then when isn't it on Google's platform.
I can help but feel that this is a big moment for Android. Having premium games on the platform will make a big difference to current users and help attract even more people to Android. It looks like it's time to start clearing space on a home screen for all of the different app stores I'm going to be using in 2011.
Source:
Engadget
