Although I can't offer datapoints. I've been a mobile power user for some time. I have both iPhone and Android phones and currently I am using my Android phone as my main phone because I am angry with HP and thus switched off my Pre2.
People here might not know but Brazil is 9% of the GLOBAL SMARTPHONE MARKET. Yes, my country may be behind in many things but if there is one thing we are really good at is communication. Brazil has at least 19 million smartphones ( http://thenextweb.com/la/2011/08/22/smartphone-usage-in-brazil-why-youll-be-surprised/) and as a developer with tech and non-tech friends, I can see how trends are going. Android is winning over iPhone here because Android devices are cheaper but the iPhone still a success. Brazilians are not keen on paying for software. Piracy is the norm even in the enterprise. I've seen top companies here such as one of the top 5 medical labs here run on pirated copies of windows and office. Every street corner there is a guy with an easel selling pirate copies of everything from AutoCAD to Wii games. When I say here that I pay for software, people look at me puzzled like "why are you doing this?". Now with that mental picture in your mind, pay attention, Brazilians spend a lot of money in mobile apps, specially games. FREE apps here will get thousands of downloads, so if you can go with ads, this is probably the way to go here but commercial mobile apps are also a success. I have a firm belief that mobile games here in Brazil earn more than the minimal wage if they are good honest fun casual games. What I've learned in the last few years is that good technology can fail if marketed improperly. The opposite is also true, you don't need to have the best thing around to be a success if you market it properly. There are thousands of good mobile apps that are not successful, I think this is due to poor marketing skills. The hardest thing is to get noticed and to get the initial downloads going up to the snowball point where it will start selling on its own. Before placing software on the mobile appstores and praying for reviews, I think developers should prepare a zero-day huge marketing boost and you can do it on the cheap. If you are doing an application for a specific market slice or niche, then find what blogs and publications people interested in your app read. Give away promo codes to these publications. Send emails to journalists and important people in that area. Do this on the same day as you are approved. Marketing is as important as coding these days. I think it doesn't matter which way you go (iOS or Android) as long as you can get your little gem noticed. _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
