Question

I want to start develop mobile applications and sell it. There are many mobile platforms for which I can begin develop: Windows Mobile , Android, Iphone, Linux based Devices.
I want to find out from people who has such experience which platform more comfortable and more profitable for me to use.

Answer 1

Currently, the most lucrative platform is the iPhone. The Android is not even close yet. The number #1 selling game on Android is Robo Defense, its entry in the Market says 50,000 to 250,000 downloads, and its price is $2.99. Assuming the price has been constant, that means the developer has roughly made between $100,000 and $500,000 (after the 30% commission has been taken out). And yet, I have developer friends on the iPhone that have made way more money than that, and those friends are not even close to have the best selling apps on the iPhone in their own category.

Part of the problem is the number of handsets out there: according to Gartner, the number of Android handsets won’t overtake iPhone handsets till 2012. The second problem is conversion rates: according to Admob, Android users are only worth 60% of the iPhone users in terms of converting from free lite version applications to paid applications (supposedly, Admob has compared identical apps on both Marketplaces).

That conversion rate is believed to be attributed to two factors: the type of users Android has, and the fact that Android currently only uses Google Checkout for its Market transactions (when in fact, it probably should use Pay Pal, not Google Checkout). But that too, should change soon. With the Evvo (from Sprint) coming out, Android will be a great phone, and with it, it will start attracting some of the very top high end users. Also, the Android Market is starting to accept transactions using carriers as go-betweens, so that should help remove some of the steps that it takes an Android user from buying an app (at least, I hope that it will).

And do notice that I didn’t even mention the Ovi store from Nokia. The Nokia sdks are still as fragmented as ever. The Ovi store is currently a mess. Its three-star rating system is useless. All apps average to two stars. They don’t allow you to upload screenshots. And the Ovi store is so expensive to upload an app to, $50 for Ovi + $150 in certificate signing fees, so it doesn’t encourage new developers to even try it out.

Also, I didn’t mention Microsoft. Microsoft is a bit of wild card right now. I can’t say much about it, except that LG who was supposed to have more Windows Mobile phones than anything else now has more Android Mobile phones than anything else. So Microsoft better get their ass into gear if they’d like to stay competitive in the Mobile arena.