In August 2009, I started work on my first Google Android app. By mid-August, the app was finished and published on the Google Android market. This was the appeal of Google Android to me. No waiting for somebody to approve my app but let the market decide. No new programming language to learn (you use Java to program a Google Android app). Barely a price entry barrier to speak of (it costs only $25 to register as a Google Android developer).
Six months on and I’m still programming apps for Google Android, working on my 3rd paid app at the moment. I’ve got 4 free apps published (supported with ads) and 2 paid apps.
So… can you make a living programming apps for Google Android?
I am making some money from my apps but nowhere near enough to support myself fully. If you want a figure, let’s say I make about £80 a month, half of it coming from ads (I use AdMob) and half of it from sales.
My app with the most downloads has achieved almost 20,000 downloads (it’s a free app) and gets about 5,000 ad requests per day. However, I have had problems with my ad provider and sometimes, the ad fill rate is below 50% for several days in a row (the ad fill rate is the percentage of ad view requests actually fulfilled). My other free apps have 1000-5000 downloads, and my paid apps have about 50 downloads each (they are both new apps).
I have not spent anything on advertising the apps nor done any kind of PR because at the moment, I’m still honing my skills as a programmer in general and a Google Android developer in particular. This is what I love about it: I can put an app on the market, get some feedback via the comments (though there is no way to answer them, which is a shame as I regularly add features asked for by users so it would be nice to be able to let users know I’ve done it – see the Google Android petition), improve the app and publish it again. As a lone developer without the means to get beta testers, this is perfect.
A few of my observations:
- even months after release, I still get a steady volume of downloads for my apps.
- the rate of downloads is increasing, thanks to a larger user-base I am assuming.
- even though Google offers users the possibility to cancel their purchase within 24 hours, I have found that very few users use this. Currently, my cancellation rate is about 5%.
- developing is getting a bit more difficult as the diversity of Google Android hardware increases.
What about you? What is your Google Android experience, either as a user (quality of apps, number of apps, apps you’d like to see etc) or a developer?
[...] http://cogitas.net/blog/2010/03/14/six-months-of-google-android-development/ [...]
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Comment by catherina — April 9, 2010 @ 11:48 am
thanx this was amazing post!
i hope they will develop something what will make me buy adroid phone
Comment by Kwiaciarnia — May 16, 2010 @ 11:48 am
Its true, that 71% of all Android users want to have an Android phone as their next phone. Though the iPhone users are even more loyal, their 89% number is quite normal for Apple users in General. However, there is not just one phone with an Android OS – there are a lot by now! Therefore, it is hard for Google / Android to provide the very same user experience on every Android phone.
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Comment by Snapstech — September 20, 2010 @ 6:07 am
Actually i was quite disappointed at the fact that despite all of your downlads (>20000) you get around 80gbp per month. I was hoping that you could do something like that for a living but i guess i was wrong.
Comment by Vlad — December 14, 2010 @ 12:59 pm
As a long term plan, I believe you can do this for a living. But as a short term plan, you would be foolish to think this is easy money. Ads revenue fluctuates a lot and the CPC is quite low in general. App sales provide a steadier income but you need to really build up your app over time and pack them up with features to be competitive.
If developing apps is what you want to do, then I’d recommend going for it as there is money to be made if you are hard working, but if you are considering this as a money-making venture, then you should consider something else.
Comment by Nat — December 14, 2010 @ 4:41 pm
^^ Actually I was planning to create a game and see how it goes with the ads. It was my last hope before immigrating to a better place, I’m from Greece you see… My plan, was to create something simple with about 3-4 months of hard work and then earn some money to be able to cover my expenses for a year or more so I can create something bigger. The idea for the simple game is catchy but if 20000 downloads earn you 70E per month then I can’t hope for much. Anyway, do you have a link or something with the method that the ad revenues are calculated? I don’t have a clue about this area and I can’t find any info in admob site. The revenues are based on downloads of the app? On clicks? On what?
Comment by Vlad — December 14, 2010 @ 6:18 pm
Are you a programmer already? If you are and spend 3-4 months working hard on developing apps for Android, you should be able to do more than 1 game, or you should be able to do a very good game. Games can get 250,000+ downloads if they are really good so your earnings could be significantly more. If you aren’t a programmer already, then I guess you need to learn and 3-4 months would barely be sufficient to do a simple game, which is unlikely to attract more than 10,000 downloads.
AdMob pays per click – usually between $0.01 and $0.1 per click, it varies a lot even within the same app. One of their major problem is they cannot fulfill all the ad requests because they are lacking advertisers, this is the primary reason why an app with 20,000+ downloads/10,000+ active users doesn’t earn more. Advertising in the mobile sphere is still a new thing and advertisers do not follow – particularly due to the general recession going on, it’s not a great time for advertising revenue.
Have a look at Developer Income Support by KreCi.
Comment by Nat — December 14, 2010 @ 6:51 pm
Nice, informative link. Yeah, I’m a developer, working remotely for a game studio at the moment. I can program in Java with ease and I have toyed around with the SDK and OpenGL ES. I may try to create something in my free time, but this time is precious and also short :’( And to develop a good game with beautiful visuals you need a lot of time. And I it’s quite a risk at the moment to leave this job to devote my time in developing for the android market. Maybe I will be developing in my free time but the time span for a game would increase extensively. Thanks anyway for all the info and I wish you good luck on your goals
Comment by Vlad — December 14, 2010 @ 8:07 pm
If you currently have a job that pays the bills and doesn’t drive you insane, I would stick to it and explore Android in your spare time. Yes, developing a complete game with beautiful graphics takes time but this will put you ahead of most games if you do so. If you take a look at the more simple games, like puzzle games, you don’t need so much time to develop them assuming you are fully conversant with Java, Open GL and creating UI and graphics.
Comment by Nat — December 14, 2010 @ 11:51 pm
Very informative your blog.
I would like to know how you are doing now with the Android app’s development,
Comment by Iara — November 1, 2011 @ 6:21 am
Thanks.
I am now working full time as an Android freelancer for a start-up, too busy to update this blog post at the moment…
As for my own apps, I have reduced the number of them I maintain. I mostly focus on my music app Mov Synth right now.
Comment by Nat — April 18, 2012 @ 2:04 pm