Market Evaluation
After spending a few months evaluating different alternate Android markets to see where I should deploy my apps, I came up with a few criteria that helped me decide if a site was worth investigating further. I used that criteria in my report on the markets.
Given that there are dozens of markets out there, it’s helpful to have a strategy to decide which one to pursue. I have seen lots of very pretty and flashy sites that look like they’d be winners, but the numbers showed that I wouldn’t get much traffic from them. Some are actually dead, and submitting your app puts it into a black hole!
So, there is obviously a need to focus your time and energy on the app markets that will get you the most return. That can be more downloads, or possibly downloads in a market that you aren’t reaching already. Some of the markets that I have reviewed show a very different demographic than the main Android Market.
Now, your own criteria may differ from mine – particularly if you speak another language or have staff that can handle activities that require being multi-lingual.
My current criteria to evaluate and Android app market
- Language – If the site doesn’t have an English version, I can’t currently use it.
- Download counts: High app download counts indicate an active market. If download counts are unavailable, I can’t measure how my app is doing – it’s like a black hole. Furthermore I can’t estimate if the market is active or not. Continue reading
After a lot of research for myself, I realized that I should share the information I’ve found about all of the markets for Android Apps. There are literally dozens of them, and they all have different rules, strengths, weaknesses, and quirks.
