Totally "meh" on Android Market.

[ardoreal]

Coming from an iPhone I know this sounds almost cliche, but seriously where are the powerful apps?

I know there are some, FeedR, Twidroid, (my personal fave, Twidgit Lite...erm...when it works).

Where's the decent video player? You know, the one that doesn't have any issues at all playing an m4v file and DOESN'T look like ass? (Hey, Act1, I'm looking at you).

I tried Speedforge, and I can see pretty clearly that Droid can do 3D and audio intensive games. Where are they? Are developers seriously so thickheaded that they'd rather just stick to iPhone while the Droid is exploding in sales? I guess, I mean, they already have their bread and butter I guess.

Maybe I'm just missing the games. I know of Speedforge 3D and the Mystique episodes (imho, overpriced for so little gameplay). I'm spoiled by stuff like Monkey Island and Doom:Resurrection on my iPhone.

I tried Geocaching on my Droid, and that whole entire experience is a bag of hurt. Groundspeak keeps being vague about SDK challenges and whatnot, "fragmented userbase" etc...for things like the compass as to why they won't go Android. What gets me though is that the actual developer feedback on iPhone vs Android is that the Object Oriented methodology on the iPhone makes them feel like they're programming for something in the 90's, and that Android feels more modern and flexible. Not to mention fast, on the right hardware.

So, you'd expect much more, but instead it's just "meh". I saw a few totally uninteresting puzzle games, the 1 or two tolerable 3D games, but no good finance apps. The Bloo app for facebook is still ass.

So far, aside from iStockmanager, it looks like Android is just another twittering platform, like WebOS, because nobody wants to make really powerful apps for it.

Now, if you flame at me saying "apparently you don't see X app as flexible, n00b", BRING IT ON! I'm just not seeing anything really cool in the market right now. It's 16,000 crApps with the 20 or so good ones. I love beautiful widgets, I love Twidroid, FeedR is better than newsrob, wikitude is cool....and uhhhh...... that's about it.

I have still yet to find a decent IM app, eBuddy is crap, meebo is crap, and I hate Mundu. Been there, done that, on other smartphones.

Anybody got any gems I don't know about?

 

[Mr. Z]

got to agree

i left the apple app store for droid too, but i'd remember there being 90% crap and 10% good with apple also. the only problem you have to remember is that right now %10 of apple's store = 50% of android marketplace. Do you remember the first month of the app store? it was mostly a waste of time, but then it exploded. i agree with you, the same thing is going to happen here.

also, there are probably good apps we dont know about, they were easier to find with apple. itunes showed off it's better apps with features and stuff on the home page, and 90% of freinds would have an ipod touch and they introduce you to the majority of the apps you later used. if you count all that plus the TV commercials, apps were a lot easier to find with apple. We are mostly on our own, except for androlib.com and forums like these. I only know 1 other person with a droid.

so its easy to see what you mean coming from the huge ecosystem apple has developed, but android has come a long way in the last 2 months, and if you sit tight i bet this post will seem silly this time next year.

 

[spoid]

I agree. I think things are promising for the Android Marketplace. Remember, Android is available on more carriers. I know many iPhone developers who have already or will soon release products for Android. Yeah, waiting sucks, but hopefully it will be worth it.

 

[ardoreal]

I guess I'm just too impatient

Apple did a far better job of promoting apps than Google has so far. Verizon might even showcase a few of the apps in their "Verizon" section of the Android Market. I like the point you make too Mr. Z. The only real way for a developer to get their app out there is through forums like these.

I also remember the early app store days too. I hardly bought any apps at that point. Most were total crap or weird gimmicky sorta things. We have the better tools to foster an ecosystem along. Oh well.

Hey devs, if you make a good app, I will buy it!!!

 

[Jeremy]

Why I still have my iPhone 3GS...

 

[largeselection]

I think the apps will come with some time. Especially with all the android phones being released like the droid, eris, nexus one, etc

 

[Magnious]

I do agree. The marketplace is...meh. But remember, the marketplace isn't ONLY for the Droid. Most of these Apps were made for less powerful phones and some of the Alps are around a year old. Give them some time..they ONLY just started making Droids specific phones. Ex: Tetris

 

[pmdied]

I agree on a few levels. Coming from palm OS, I' d like to know why there aren't any apps that tie into the native PIM and associate contacts with tasks, notes and other features like Agendus did. That app was $50 but did everything I needed to organize my business. Now I have one app for tasks, one for notes, one for memos and none of them integrate or associate with my contacts. I don't know if that's a Google/Android issue or a developer issues. Perhaps its nascent nature is the answer it may be an issue of patience (on my part)

 

[judasmachine]

I came over from Win Mo. It's market was atrocious. The best market was the forums and tweaks. Office Mo was all it had going for it.

 

[ardoreal]

I came over from Win Mo. It's market was atrocious. The best market was the forums and tweaks. Office Mo was all it had going for it.

LOL

Poor soul. I pity all Winmo users Android must be like heaven for ya.