In an intensely crowded app world, getting noticed is the big challenge. Finding Facebook, Shazam or Pandora on the Android Market is easy. But for smaller apps like Time Lapse or Zum Zum, the key to survival is finding enough eyeballs.
"There are 50,000 apps in the Android Market, while your phone lists only 50 apps at a time," says Hoogsteder. "You are seeing just a fraction of what's out there."
That's why many new Android app stores such as AndroLib and AppBrain have focused on being meta-stores, places that aggregate and let you search Android apps. But to actually download the apps, users have to go to the Android Market.
AndSpot and SlideMe are a step ahead. They are trying to convince enough developers to publish apps directly to their stores, in addition to offering them on the official Google Market. So users who have SlideMe or AndSpot will never have to go to the Android Market, if they don't want to. Developers don't have to make any changes to their apps intended for the Google Android Market before they list it on AndSpot or SlideMe.
SlideMe, which launched in April 2008, doesn't take a cut of the revenue from app sales. When apps are sold through its store, SlideMe subtracts a payment-processing fee required by the credit card company (which usually is about 3.5 percent) and any applicable tax, and lets developers keep the rest. Apple and Google both allow developers to keep just 70 percent of the revenue they get from their sales.
Instead, SlideMe makes money by licensing its entire app store to gadget manufacturers. That also means SlideMe's app store will come pre-loaded on a phone similar to Google's Android Market.
Last year, SlideMe landed its first deal with Vodafone Egypt to pre-load its app store on the HTC Magic. The SlideMe app store will also be on Sony Ericsson's Xperia X10 phones sold in the Middle East.
"Not all manufacturers can comply with the requirements of Google, so Google can't give them the app store," says Christopoulos. "That's why SlideMe can be on more than just phones. We are thinking netbooks and in-car infotainment systems."
AndSpot says, for now, it plans to offer developers an 80 percent cut of the revenues from its app store. But Kheradmand is not sure AndSpot can sustain the pace. "We are operating on very thin margins here," he says.
Offering developers more revenue by finding ways to make money off their apps is key to the survival of these independent app stores.
Google's Android Market lags behind its peers when it comes to paid apps. Distimo's analytics show almost 75 percent of apps in the Apple App Store are paid, compared to just under 43 percent in the Android Market.
Only nine countries are allowed to distribute Android paid apps currently because of Google checkout restrictions, points out Hoogsteder. Consumers from only 13 countries can get access to paid content.
That cuts out a lot of international developers and users, says Christopoulos. For instance, a Polish developer created a game called Speed Forge 3D that couldn't be sold through the Android app store in many countries because of restrictions around Google Checkout. The app is listed on SlideMe for approximately $3.
SlideMe will also focus on localized apps and tailor its app store by country.
"You might be from a country in the Middle East and not speak English. We can help you find apps in your local language," says Christopoulos.
AndSpot says both users and developers will find the independent Android-focused app stores a sweet deal.
"Users will go where the apps are, and developers will be attracted because they have nothing to lose," says Kheradmand.
See Also:
Photo: (modenadude/Flickr)
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
Search and Browse the WWW like it's 1997 | Search results from DuckDuckGo
HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.3