I started developing iPhone applications about a year ago because of an idea my wife had. She knew I liked to program as a hobby and she knew my kids loved my iPod Touch. So she thought we should try to combine the two and involve the family in a project. The result was our first commercial iPhone app called "Family Matters" it spent a few weeks on the top of the travel chart and was a great overall experience.

In January 2010 it was time to get a new phone and I was considering the iPhone but my company phone plan is on Verizon. At the time I had a Windows Mobile device. So I decided to get an Android phone and also considered the possibility of porting my app to that platform. However even though this is my hobby, it is still time consuming so I didn't want to dive in if the platform wasn't going to be fruitful.

My wife and I decided we would each get an Android phone and spend a few months evaluating them as a useful parenting tool (and as a phone). We spent a week with each of the available Android phones at that time (Motorola Droid, Nexus ONE, HTC Eris, etc.) and for many reasons that are beyond this scope we ended up both getting HTC Eris.

From our experience with the iPod Touch and the iPhone we created an evaluation criteria of what we thought was important as developers of a family-oriented app and as parents (the target audience for our apps).

As developers we were concerned with:

1. Size of market
2. Multi-device and OS support issues
3. Supportive marketplace
4. Quality and pricing of the applications in the marketplace
5. Piracy

As parents we were concerned with:

1. Ease of use of the phone
2. Variety and cost of family-oriented applications
3. Ability to assess and find applications good for our family
4. Ease of upgrading the applications
5. Parental controls

Our findings from a family app developer perspective
As a developer I'm excited to see a new, thriving platform that may help me expand my audience. Since I have limited time I wanted to evaluate some key areas to help me decide if the platform is ready for me to jump in. I was already familiar with the development environment so I didn’t add that to my evaluation criteria. I realize much of this is subjective but maybe this will be useful for others in my situation.

Market Size
Every developer wants to make sure they have a large enough market for the wares so that it will be profitable. Even if you have a free app you want to know your labor will meet a large market of people who will appreciate your offering. It appears at this time Android ships 60,000 per day and comparing this to Apple’s 97,000 a day this is really good news. (See “Comparing Android Phone Shipments With iPhone, BlackBerry”) - Note I don’t know if this includes iPods and iPads. I suspect it doesn’t but Android’s numbers are still good.

Multi-device and OS support issues
One concern we had was that the Android OS possibly behaves differently on various phones. This means as a developer you have to expect to handle differences in your design and expect to support a variety of phone implementations. This is sort of like developing for the iPhone and the iPad except there is no centralized support or guidance for developers on what the differences are and the potential number of devices isn’t two or three, it is potentially a large number over time.

One example of this problem is we found that since each phone vendor will update the OS on their own timetable you may need to support older OS versions far longer than you do on the iPhone. For instance, the Motorola Droid had the 2.1 Android OS last year but it only came out for the HTC Eris this week. So developers had to straddle the OS variances.

On the iPhone you may need/want to support multiple versions since some people don’t upgrade but in this case there is no choice. I couldn’t upgrade my phone to support the 2.1 features even if I wanted to. So from our perspective this is a weakness of the platform and we recognize we will need to assume more support costs on this platform as hardware manufacturers will continue to try to differentiate their offerings which risks further fragmentation. Variety of phones and OS implementations might be good for consumers but it is troubling for small developers.

Supportive Marketplace
By “supportive marketplace” I mean a shopping experience that allows consumers to find our application and a platform that encourages people to purchase the applications. Even though the Android marketplace may be a tenth of the size of the iPhone App Store it is still pretty large and growing. So we are naturally concerned how people will locate our application and we want to know it will be easy for them to make a purchasing decision.

When we first tried the Android market it was an awful experience. Searching would often not locate apps even when we typed the exact name; we could search on the same term and actually get different results - that was bizarre; the categories were almost meaningless and there was no way to filter by paid or free.

Since the update to 2.1 on our Eris the market has become much more friendly. The categories have become more helpful and the buying process is pretty easy on the phone. Although I still prefer the App Store to the Android Marketplace, it clearly has come a long way and is sufficient for me to feel comfortable this is workable.

However the lack of an iTunes equivalent has proven to be a pretty big deal for us. In January we were on Apple’s “What’s Hot” list and through informal surveys we found that large numbers of the parents found us not on their phone but from the larger pictures of our app they saw on their computer via iTunes App Store “What’s Hot” promotion. iTunes is such a centerpiece of media management for users of any of Apple’s products that it becomes an effective marketing tool as well. Unfortunately there is no equivalent experience on Android so we have to hope the phone experience is sufficient to encourage people to try new applications.

One other concern is it doesn’t feel like there is anyone at the wheel. App Store has its what’s hot and its staff picks and new & noteworthy. Now it even has an Apps for Kids section. So as a developer of family apps I feel like there is a chance that if I produce a quality product Apple’s marketing machine may support me. Not only do I have a shot at a front-and-center promotion on the App Store but my app could end up in a television commercial (yeah that'll happen).

That brings me to a personal gripe - the commercials. Apple advertises their phone and ultimately their OS as a way of getting things done. Many of their commercials have messages that resonate with my target audience of parents (See Apple’s Family Man Commercial). The only Android commercials I have seen are techie appeals for openness by Google (see Android Commercial) and ones from Motorola/Verizon showing off a giant robot arm taking over the world with a Droid (I couldn’t locate the “Droid Does” commercial online but you know the one). I don’t have a clue who they are advertising to but I know it isn’t helping me sell an application that promotes family communication or stimulating my audience.

Quality and Pricing
Why should I care about the quality of other applications and their pricing? As a parent I know that if the majority of the apps are garbage then I am going to stop looking for good value and ultimately not bother buying or even downloading free ones. I want a competitive marketplace with quality apps that my offering can be compared to. Overall the quality is ok but the lack of real consistency being enforced in this “open” platform leaves me personally with a feeling that you just don’t know what you are going to get. Even the worst apps on the iPhone met some sort of standards. I suspect this will get better over time so I’m willing to live with this.

I also care about price because if great apps are given away at bargain basement prices then the market has set a low value on them. The App Store is pretty inexpensive but it works. I was hoping to see the same in the Android marketplace. What I have found so far is the market hasn’t settled down yet. There are a lot of free apps so the expectation for Free is high. I saw the same thing on quality - its early and I think it will settle down. I do know some high profile iPhone developers have minimized the support for Android because of this and other factors. I’m hopeful that this is just a short-lived issue for developers. There are some really great apps already on this platform so I think this will just get better.

Piracy
Piracy is a fact of life on every platform. What I want is some level of control so honest people stay honest. I expect some level of piracy and don't consider this in general a platform issue. However on the iPhone you have to jailbreak to pirate and you need a tool and some level of technical expertise or comfort. This automatically restricts the number of pirates to a small fraction of the population. There is no such restriction on the Android platform. I was amazed how easy it is to pirate on the platform and how rampant it is already. You don't need special versions, you don't need special software, you don't need special skills. I can't see any reason why every developer shouldn't expect a much larger percentage of their application copied illegally. This is somewhat demoralizing for a small developer and from what I can see there is currently nothing you can do about it.

Our findings from a parent’s perspective
As a parent and owner of two Android phones I'm also interested in how the platform will work my family. I'm appreciate the quality and variety and easy installation of iPhone apps. I'm hoping to see similar value from this platform so it becomes a viable tool for us to entertain, educate and communicate when we are mobile as a family. Most of these are subjective issues but I talk to a lot of parents and enough have agreed with my criteria that I feel good about sharing it with you.

Ease of use
The ease of use issue for us matters because if the phone is complicated it won’t get used for anything but making calls. People get these smart phones for a variety of reasons but unless you are a business user you typically just want calls, maybe text messaging and pictures and some apps. If that is not easy you will just use it for calls and complain about it until it is time to get a new one. As developers we need you to love using the phone.

I’ll start by saying simply this is no iPhone. There may be a dozen ways you can say that Android is technically better than iPhone but when it comes to simplicity and comfort and an “it just works” feeling Android isn’t even close in our experience.

I’m a power user and knew the Eris was a little underpowered for me but my wife just wanted a good phone with some basic email and camera functions and ability to play games from time to time. The number of hours we had to customize and configure and research to get this to feel comfortable was astounding. The iPhone may not be very customizable (unless jail broken) but it hits that sweet spot for the typical user and for most family-oriented users.

This phone took real work to get right. By the way the Eris uses the HTC Sense UI which is much better than the out of the box Android UI but it still was time consuming to get comfortable with it. What this means to us is that parents may get this phone and potentially lose interest in downloading apps. For us it just isn't as addictive as the iPhone experience.

Another weakness we found is ironically one of the most touted strengths of Android - multitasking. One of the big claims to fame for Android has been the idea you can run multiple apps at once. For us what this means in a practical sense is if you are trying to do one thing there may be something in the background running and it can slow down the phone, it can pop up unexpectedly, it can fail to quit properly (see quality). I can’t tell you how many times I went to hang up a call and it took several seconds for the call to quit because of something running in the background. For the non-technical user it makes the experience unpredictable and we found less enjoyable.

Android is alright for ease of use - it just isn’t great and it is one more thing to be concerned about as a family app developer. I don’t think this is a deal-breaker but I sure hope it gets better over time. We know the best thing we can do is make sure our app is considerate of the multitasking environment it will be forced to run in. Since iPhone 4.0 will be multi-tasking we suspect this is just part of the future. The possible difference is I suspect Apple will require a certain amount of compliance with what they consider good practices and Android will most likely stay the wild west for some time. That’s just speculation though based on experience to date. I have no idea how the rules may change as bit of these platforms mature.

Variety and Cost
As parents I want a variety of applications to choose from. Competition is great for me and encourages me to constantly see “what’s new”. Android will expand its volume of apps so this seems like it is on the right track. However I found trying to find quality apps for my family was still difficult. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of “smarts” in the way apps are related in the marketplace, many apps don’t have pictures on the marketplace so you don’t even know what it looks like before you buy it. Also the family categories don’t seem well thought out yet so I found it a little difficult to find the apps. This is great news for MomsWithApps and other websites that help people find those gems that the marketplace doesn’t highlight.

Cost of apps is on the low side which is great for parents but I did feel like there is still a lot of experimentation going on. I would find two apps for first grade math and one was .99 and one was 2.99 and I couldn’t see any difference in the quality. I think the market will drive these price issues out over time as it has on the App Store. There are still outliers on the App Store but pretty much developers know where their app fits because there are so many models to compare to in each category. One note: I noticed apps priced in different currency. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong but that was odd to see. It would certainly discourage me from buying an App if I had to do the conversion in my head to figure out the price. I hope I just did something wrong.

Ability to Assess Apps
One of the most difficult things for a parent to do is figure out which apps are really good for their family before purchasing them. Personally I do the following:

1. Read reviews
2. Look at screenshots
3. See what other apps parents purchased
4. Check out review sites if it is an expensive app

All of these are possible with the Android market. However many apps don’t have screenshots which I find disappointing. Again this frustrates me somewhat as a parent but I am pretty confident they will continue to improve the buying experience so this is a minor nuisance.

Ease of upgrade
One thing we have learned from the iPhone is that upgrading is key. Apps that upgrade often are considered “better value” assuming the upgrades include features and not just bug fixes. However if the upgrade process isn't smooth a user will view upgrades as a burden and if then upgrades cause problems this could lead to big support headaches for developers too.

Currently upgrading an android app is not as easy as the iPhone but it isn't too bad. The general flow is similar to the iPhone; a user views the app in the market place and sees which ones have upgrades available and clicks the upgrade button. However I found on many occasions the update didn't happen and there was no indicator of a problem.

If I had multiple apps to update it was much worse. First there is no "update all" so updating each individual app was necessary. One time I had 15 apps that had updates. That was not fun. It almost turned me off to the platform altogether- it was that frustrating.

The next problem was when I did manually upgrade multiple apps strange things would happen. I assume this is another issue with multitasking but while one app was downloading I would try to update the next one. If I did this more than twice the device would occasionally become unresponsive until the first download completed.

As an aside the whole install process needs some work. Once you install an app it does not appear in your workspace so you have to locate it in the list and then manually place it. This adds a lot of steps and reduces overall usability. In addition you can drag the app out multiple times so if you have a ton of apps like I do you can end up with quite the customization mess. Deleting an app is just as lacking in refinement. To delete an app you have to locate it in the settings and then delete it. I figure it adds about 4-6 additional steps to delete an app based on our typical usage patterns. This is a problem because I find I am much less likely to try an app if it is going to be a hassle to get rid of it if I don't like it. This means as a developer I do believe I will get less casual users. Small things like this add up. They really need to improve the install/upgrade/delete process so updates are seen as a good thing and not something to dread.

Parental controls
Parental control is currently a very weak area on Android. On the iPhone I can control what content is downloadable, what major apps are allowed to run, even what type of music can be loaded. In addition Apple restricts a ton of inappropriate content so I don't have to worry as much. Sure it's always my responsibility to parent but the fact that the phone helps me control the content is great. As far as I can tell there is nothing like this built into Android. This is a real shame. How does this affect me as a developer? Well as a parent I feel like I have to scrutinize every single app and can never let my kids make an impulse download or purchase. This will drastically restrict my family buying habits.

Conclusion
Writing an article like this is bound to rile some people who are advocates or invested in one platform or another. My goal was to evaluate if this platform was right for me and then share my observations in the hopes it may prove useful to others. I would love to hear what others experience has been. Also I realize the platform keeps evolving and new phones are coming out all the time. Even while writing this article we saw some better phones appear like the HTC Incredible and of course iPhone 4.0 is around the corner so we had to evaluate what we had on hand.

Here’s my conclusions:

Overall the Android developer outlook is good. It’s a growing market and a powerful platform. I don't think the market support for small developers is great right now and I am hoping they will improve this. It doesn't mean it isn't a good opportunity but is seems there is less chance of getting noticed right now.

As a parent I'm less optimistic. I think for the time being I will stick to using my iPod for kids games and educational tools and I'll just use my Eris for calls, business needs and occasional entertainment. I’m put off some by the lack of parental controls but mainly I just find the app management to be too cumbersome as an end user and don't want to waste time customizing the phone. Obviously this is a personal choice but I know that most parents don't have time to play with their phone. They need it to just work.

The outlook for the Android platform seems bright to me. I can see developing for it in the future. I know several developers that already are and have had mixed experiences. For me I think I'll wait. I don't think the market will support my app the way I am used to on the App Store and it's hard enough to find the time to build and market it. I'll keep my phone and keep my eye on how the market progresses. All this platform competition is great news for developers. I suspect for developers like me, it may only a matter of time.