Following on from a discussion and a few questions about the basics of building for android,I have the age old question to pose but would love to hear from those that know. I have worked on iOS for nearly 3 years. It is a fantastic market place and, whilst some apps fail, there are always the odd few that make your head spin. What I want to know is, is the time an effort learning android worthwhile, like truly worthwhile? Do those that service the app store get good sales with paid? What is the return on paid apps? Is there a price structure like iOS? Do ad revenues give a good return? I would very much appreciate the thoughts of those experienced with the android market. All the best.

I'm very interested in this as well! My interpretation of the market is that unless it's a truly amazing app...like Angry Birds good...then nobody on the Android market wants to pay for anything. I do know that some people are making good money via ad revenue, so that might make it worth it. But I suspect it depends on the popularity of the app. Mark

Also worth considering if you plan in building apps for clients, if so you cannot ignore Android. Good for the brain to step out of comfort zone as well, dive into Android buddy, it is worth it as while Apple v Android market share may be around 50/50 here in the good ol U S of A, worldwide it's more like a 70/30 split in favour of the beast. Just getting back into Android again myself, is it initially more of a pain, yes, are there pay offs, by all means. Happy Monday gents!

I'm interested to know about costs: I'm good to go for iOS (Apple Dev account, Mac, iPhone, etc.), but what are the costs to consider for Android? I've heard Android can actually be *more* expensive than Apple. What's a good entry level device to start with? - William

Not too many more costs buddy. Think Play is still just a one time fee of $25, no recurring yearly renewal. If you have a Mac you are also good to go, no need for another development machine, Eclipse runs nicely on your Mac. As for buying a phone, that will be your main cost. You can pick up an HTC of reasonable screen size for under $50 but a more recent phone like and Sii or Siii will easily set you back a couple or three hindered US.

Thanks Keith and Mark. I accept for client work its a must. My barrier comes in when I think I could be spending the time making another iOS app rather than spending the time making something no one will download. I suppose the key is, as ever, make something no one else has made and that everyone wants. The model is that sense must be the same :) Also Keith, do you need the JDK Java on a mac? Couldnt find it for mac when I looked briefly earlier.

It all depends on what your trying to make. Plus how you market your app, whether its android or iOS if you market it right it will make good revenue. This guy writes some interesting blogs, check him out. http://www.treysmithblog.com/

Thanks. Are android serviced with Admob, I think thats google. Think I'll do a test app and see what happens :)

admob can work for both iOS and android

Alex, You do need Java JDK on Mac to make this work. Mine had it by default with Snow Leopard, and I didn't need to install anything else. Mark

Check out the start to finish Android and buzztouch guide in the How-To section. Shows you everything you need!

Just my two cents. Reading all the trends and posts and things of that nature, it 'seems' as if the App Store 'sells' a lot more. The mobile 'market' they say, is about '50/50'. But it seems a bit lopsided from the standpoint of, you have 50% Apple Devices, and 50% every bloomin' Android OS Device on the planet from a million different companies, so I still tend to think Apple reigns. Android users don't 'buy' as much stuff according to some articles. If your business plan is 'selling' apps, you may not see as much activity on Google Play vs the App Store. If your business plan is to make money on Ads, then Android 'should' perform as well, providing the app is free. My personal business plan is selling apps locally to businesses that need mobile representation... It's slowly working. Cheers! -- Smug

Ceerup, yes I know iOS can use AdMob, just wondered what is the choice on Android. I have read some really horrible stuff about MobClix I think they are called. Developers this month 'hoping' they get paid revenue earned in July!! Thanks Mark, I watched your YouTube video, the 20 minutes one but as it was being installed on Windows I was unsure about Mac. I read somewhere the JDK was included on Mac. Hope thats the same for Mountain Lion - it has the chance to redeem itself. Interesting regarding the lack of 'buyers' on Android. So maybe people get an Android because they know and assume most apps are free and its become a self perpetuating thing. If there are 2 apps doing the same thing and one is free and one isnt I suppose its not rocket science which one they are going to go for. iAd is a mystery to me. Hopefully Admob and others give you more an idea of revenue.

Oh the most revenue, I hear airpush and leadbolt

I have a niche type app in play and the paid version has seen only 100 downloads in around 50 days but the free version has seen almost 4000 downloads so I would say if you get the right ad network to appeal to your app users then free with ads would be your best bet on android.

@Alex@TM If I can jump in here. I have been making some great money with Android. I use Airpush as ceerup stated and Revmob. I used to use Admob, but their payment numbers have dropped considerably. And of course as long as you have traffic the money will come.

If you open up a terminal window on your Mac, and type in 'java -version' it should tell you what's running. You can also try 'which java' to see where it's located. Regarding multiple free apps doing the same thing...I think the one most people install is the most popular one. I doubt most people go beyond the first page of results in a search for an app. But that's the same for iOS I would think.

I have some apps on both Android and iOS. A few of my free apps get more downloads on Android than iOS. It depends on the audience--I think a lot more college students have Android devices, and business professionals are more likely to have an iPhone.

> business professionals are more likely to have an iPhone. That will depend on the country. I am in a country too small for Apple to do business with, so literally everybody here has an Android smart phone and nobody has Apple.

@Yousicc Is AirPush kind to your customers? When you google them out, many sites mention that AirPush is malware and the like. In other words, does it bother your users with too many ads?

@Dusko Hey man. You can play with Airpush settings. Some people have notifications going out 5 times a day no matter what, and that can be annoying. I just drip feed them the ads. But it surely is not malware. The games are legit that the people can download. Best of luck.

I would suggest doing both. Android has been good to me.

So true about other countries. I should have said that in the US most business professionals have an iPhone. Another reason we need to do Android is because in some large countries there is very little adoption of the iPhone at all.