obviator

Right from the start Android has been designed with a form of Responsive Design. With scalable XML layouts, and selectors to choose which layout is loaded for different DPI devices, one could argue that even early versions of Android are at least as design-friendly as modern HTML5.

That's not to say there aren't challenges. But the whole point of Android was always to create an industry standard for a wide range of devices. This requires - by definition - support for a variety of screen sizes, DPIs, hardware features, etc. When most people talk about fragmentation as a negative point of Android, they're forgetting what Android is. A common platform, running on an unlimited number of devices. That's by design, not accident.

I've seen a few of my apps copied - and not just the functionality, but nearly identical name & description posted on Google Play! The automatic reaction is to be annoyed by this, but ultimately it's not a big deal for me.

In the long term, I think the positive effects of sharing with the developer community will outweigh the negative effects of copycats. Sure, it's a little disappointing to see someone else using your ideas. But I'd much rather this scenario (where everyone can copy, be inspired, or even steal freely), rather than a patent-ridden ecosystem where you can't take inspiration from anywhere, for fear of being sued.

So at the end of the day - no, I don't feel the same way. I understand the position Chris took with kreci.net, but for my part I just take the copycats as an indication that we're still living in a free marketplace :)

I'm the author of this post, would be happy to answer any questions people have about further stats from this month. There are a lot of networks, so it wasn't possible to post absolutely every detail!

I'll be watching this thread for a while, so feel free to post any queries you might have below.

IMEI most likely. They can transmit the number as a non-reversible hash (MD5 or similar), that way the number never gets sent or stored as plain text.

The graph of daily activations is pretty amazing. Based on current growth rates, they should pass 1 million daily activations some time in 2012.

How does this compare with elusivestars.com? They're trying to do a similar thing, allowing developers to upload Android apps and pay reviewers to provide feedback. The goal is also to provide better reviews than the Android Market.

Personally, I'd be more interested in paying a small amount (say $10 per review) to a number of people and getting feedback from a few different perspectives, rather than putting all my eggs in one basket. $100 per review would only be worth it if the review would be published in a prominent place where it could provide some publicity for my app as well.

"Check the timing of transitions between visible elements."

I think this comment is even more valuable than the rest of the article. Coding tips are helpful, but most of these can be figured out pretty quickly by a decent programmer. The timing / UI lag issue is something that I see a lot with Android apps, but not so much on iOS. As an Android developer it's important to consider these little details, and be aware that not everybody on the market will have a phone as powerful as yours ;)

Great to see some solid income from an Android developer! I find it interesting that the primary source of revenue is adverts in free apps. Some of the comments I've seen previously on HN seemed to indicate this isn't really possible. Evidently it is :)

It would be interesting to see some stats about active users / new installs, to see how that relates to the advertising income.

Great, thanks for the feedback. Glad someone's on top of it :)

This is an excellent service for tracking bugs in your Android apps. Unfortunately, it's not so much use if quota limitations take down the whole site. Doesn't Google have some way to increase quota on-demand (automatically) to cater for intense load?

I agree. The barrier to entry for developing iOS apps is too high for me, as I'd have to buy a Mac and, realistically speaking, an iOS device for testing. But I can run the Android SDK on all my computers, Windows & Linux alike, so development is available wherever I am.

Also, the Android SDK works really well for testing with a physical device. Plug in by USB, or use wireless ADB, and it only takes a couple of seconds to deploy a debug package to your testing device. Much faster than using the emulator.

I'm actually the guy running the site, so just thought I'd add my 2 cents :) With this site, the main focus is building a business model around Android development - "making money" with Android. That's not to say app quality has to go out the door. In my experience, you can't really build a sustainable business around crappy products. So it's in my best interests to keep up the quality, even if the business development is the stated goal (and the one I'll write most about).

Agree with you 100% that quality is key to success. I just chose to focus on the business & financial side of things, since at the time I started this blog there weren't many people writing about their experiences with Android.

Google has shut down all invitations for the night. Not sure when they'll be re-opening, but you probably won't be able to use the link until then.

Looks like they just disabled invites again.