Is the Android Un-Lutheran?
Mr. Brian Yamabe, a fellow LCMS Lutheran, put up a post on his blog “Vocation in the Valley: Life Under the Cross” yesterday that I found very helpful and well put. Whenever I mention the Apple iPhone app marketplace, I get, understandably, a number of inquiries from Android uses asking if/when we will be releasing Android-friendly apps. Some ask nicely, some make blanket accusations, some get downright angry and say some pretty silly things. Well, Mr. Yamabe is a professional in the field and his blog post explaining why the Apple app market is, at this point, the place to be, offers very helpful insights. Let me assure you that CPH is monitoring all these developments very, very closely. We have a full time staff in our Emerging Products department who stays abreast of all the latest technological developments. We have not slammed the door shut on Android, but at this point, for the reasons Mr. Yamabe identifies below, we are devoting our work to the Apple app marketplace.We will continue to monitor the Android market and if/when we can devote resources to Android app development, we certainly will.
Here is his post:
Is Android Un-Lutheran?
The answer is, of course, no? I won’t bring up the “A” word, but the choice of handset operating system is neither commanded nor prohibited in Scripture. In fact, at the LCMS National Convention I ran into plenty of pastors with Android phones. And, yes, even I, a qualified “Apple Fanboy” have an Android phone (HTC Hero).
So why aren’t Concordia Publishing House (CPH) and others (myself included) writing apps for the Android? I’ve seen plenty of requests on FaceBook and Twitter asking for apps to be written for Android. So there is most certainly a need to be filled. Well, I won’t presume to speak for CPH, but I think I can shed some light on their thought processes as I explain my rationales.
Allocation of Resources
Every developer has a limited number of resources so has to decide what platform(s) to develop for. In the case of iOS vs Android the installed base of iOS devices more than doubles Android devices in the US and is almost 4x the number worldwide (intomobile). In addition to that, amount people spend on iOS apps dwarfs what people spend on Android apps (GigaOm). Based on these simple numbers it’s quite easy to choose what platform to develop for.
Ease of Development
I’ve done some cursory research into Android development and it is not very developer friendly at this point. UI layout is done in XML (text) files. Just think of trying to arrange your living room furniture by writing down the coordinates of your sofa, TV, etc. Also the number of widgets available for free is rather limited. Think wood crate furniture with anything more sophisticated needing to be hand crafted. The current state of Android development is like stuff I was doing 10+ years ago.
Things are Changing
But Android has some positives. It is gaining is popularity and had greater unit shipments than the iPhone in Q2 2010 (ZDNet) and App Inventor and Google’s developer friendliness will surely make the development situation better.
Some Things Won’t
That being said, Google is unlikely to do anything that would improve the market for apps. Why? Because Google isn’t in the business of selling apps, Google is in the business of selling ads. They want apps to embed ads as the mechanism for monetization. Additionally, Google hasn’t been able to address piracy on Android devices (AndroidHeadlines). They actually don’t have any incentives to put much effort in anti-piracy. If piracy is rampant, then the only way for developers to make money is to embed ads.
Like I said, I won’t presume to speak for CPH, but it is quite clear to me that now and into the near future developing for the iOS is the platform to develop for if you have limited resources and want to try to make money by selling your apps.
Is Android Un-Lutheran? It’s about the same as saying Pabst is Roman Catholic beer (well, Pabst means ‘Papal’.) What’s in a name, anyway? I don’t want to insult anyone from Milwaukee
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Well, I guess us Toshiba computer and Samsung phone guys, for whom apples are things that grow on certain trees, are just SOL then. Which is fine — all products bought from CPH have covers to hold them, not devices.
“Pabst” is a proper name btw. “Papal” is “paepstlich”, and “pope” is “Papst”. Pabst is Frederick Pabst, who took over Best and Company, originally The Empire Brewery. S&P (not Standard & Poor’s) bought it in recent times, got ordered by the IRS to sell it in 2005, whereupon the board canned the CEO and the new guy moved hq to Illinois. Earlier this year a guy with a Greek name bought it. The Milwaukee plant has been closed since 1997 and is now up for controversial re-development.
As to God and beer, as anybody who grew up in Minnesota when I did can tell you, GB stands for both Grain Belt and God’s Beer. But that’s gone now too. Rivals from New Ulm, probably egged on by Hermann the German, under whose statue I have proudly stood, bought them. I wonder if KNUJ still plays polka music?
Hey I forgot. Frederick Pabst started out as Friedrich Pabst from Saxony, or Sachsen as God calls it. I’m thinking he was one of us.
So now Pabst Blue Ribbon is owned by a Greek Orthodox? Oy vey!
So long as you guys continue providing tools for Kindle or logos, then folk (such as myself who won’t buy that hippie Apple [censored] on principle), can get what we need.
No worries.
Randy
That’s an interesting statistic that he quotes regarding iOS usage vs Android usage. I believed it when you (Pr. McCain) used it in your reply to the earlier post about PrayNow. It is interesting though, because a Gartner (technology analysis, research, and consulting firm) report that came out this week is quoted as saying that the most recent analysis shows that in 2010 “Android Became the World’s Third Most Popular Smartphone Operating System and Claimed Top Spot in the U.S”. Research In Motion (Blackberry) is listed at the number two spot in the world with 18.2 percent of the market share, Android comes in at number 3 with 17.2 and Apple’s iOS is in 4th place with 14.2 percent of the world wide market share. (It should be noted that this is up for Android from 1.8 percent in 2009, so it was a huge leap). The report can be found at the following link: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013
I would generally agree with his other points, but I think this shows how dangerous statistics can be because depending on where you get them and what the motivation is, they can tell different stories.
Anyway, I still understand that CPH has limited resources and the iTunes method of development and delivery are still probably the best choice at this time. Hopefully Google makes some improvements so that their process is not as cumbersome.
Tom, thus is true, but please note the important distinction between phone sales and App sales, the report also does not include all Apple devices that use apps. Some key and important details.
I would be very careful about citing Gartner research. Most of us in the IT industry are well aware of Gartner reports being Anti-Apple, Anti-Open Source, and pro-Microsoft.
Some of us absolutely despise AT&T. It is the main reason why many people do not own an iPhone. Should Apple make a Verizon iPhone, then concerns about the lack of development on the Blackberry or Android will disappear for most people.
I hope AT&T’s footprint has improved. I was with them up to the TDMA/GSM switch, which was miserable. Couldn’t get the new stuff on the network where you could make calls more than five feet away from an Interstate, and couldn’t make calls except within the much smaller foorprint of the new network if you wanted the new data stuff. I bailed.
I don’t know if the new Pabst owner is either really Greek or Orthodox, just that he had a Greek-looking last name, and I don’t remember what that is either!
@Jim
My point was that you have to be careful citing any research regardless of the author and read it with a cautious eye as you can use research to support any argument. I actually didn’t find the report directly, but it was cited in a TechRepublic/ZDNet article (http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/smartphones/?p=1427&tag=rbxccnbtr1) about the Android OS. If you go back to the article referenced in Mr Yamabe’s original post I believe it is referencing ad requests, not actual phones sold. If you click through to the article about sales it indicates the same thing about Android taking over the market share from Apple. (http://www.intomobile.com/2010/05/10/u-s-android-sales-beat-iphone-in-q1-study/)
Really, in the grand scheme of life none of this makes a difference.
Developers are going to continue to develop applications on the platform that they determine to make the most business sense. Those of us with Android based phones will probably continue to gripe about missing out on things that our iPhone wielding friends have, but life will go on.
Ultimately, I completely agree with you. The only reason I own a Droid X and not an iPhone 4 is that I refuse to sign a contract with AT&T. They haven’t proven themselves enough to make me want to leave Verizon and I have family in areas that AT&T doesn’t have quality service and I don’t want to be without the service when I visit them. Maybe the latest WSJ reports are more accurate and we’ll be seeing an iPhone on Verizon sooner rather than later. Until then I’m not holding my breath
From a former Technology professional (Senior Systems Analyst at a familiar Fortune 500 Fraternal Insurance and Benefits Institution) with a B.S. in Computer Science (CUW 2002), I truly believe that the Android is the future of the mobile market. The reason for this is one thing, the growing popularity of Open Source Development. I’ve been an advocate of Open Source since the 90s and participated in some side projects (Mozilla pre 1.0 among others). You are right, the development is a bit more difficult on the Android side… for now. Of course with OSD, that can be overcome quite easily. At the moment, I believe “apps” are just a stop gap until the full potential of HTML 5 and Web 2.0 are realized. Then you (I mean you at CPH) won’t have to hear from us smart Android users complaining there are no apps for us as the application layer will be in the “cloud” so to speak. As long as a phone can connect and is HTML 5 compatible, it will work… and there will be much rejoicing amongst the Android users.
I misspoke… my former title was Senior Technology Systems Specialist… it’s been a while and the title changes all get mushed together (even though the job rarely changed).
My knowledge of technology in this area is quite limited. I have a phone that makes calls and receives calls and, somehow, I’m quite happy with that. (call me weird). Thus, I don’t have a horse in this race.
However, this whole discussion reminds me of the Apple vs. PC platform arguments of the early ’90′s. Many considered Apple to be a superior product while PC’s had all the “apps” (software). PC users trumpeted the number of users they had while Apple users trumpeted the superiority of their product. Apple was the future of computers while PC was “the establishment”.
Now there are more apps for the Apple and Apple communicate with the PC platform. I wonder if this won’t be the eventual outcome in this Droid vs. IPhone debate.