What was Google Thinking When They Did This?

Yeah, I'm talking about the totally ridiculous 'Rate this app to get recommendations' gig by Google.

So here is what happened to me the other day. I open up Play Store, and I get the Rate this app... thingy and its asking me to rate an app I uninstalled about 6 months ago. Now I download about an app a day, and I have no freekin idea about that app, was it good? Did it crash on me? Did I get bored of it? Umm.. no.. no idea. But I still want the recommendations.. So being the good guy I am I give it 5 stars and proceed. BUT.. the problem is we are not living in a world filled with good guys, I am sure many would have just given it a one star rating and moved on. Yeah, check out this link by androidpolice.

This is where my problem lies as a developer. I have a stickiness ratio of about 40% on my apps, which means 60% of my installs result in uninstalls. And imagine google asking these guys to rate my app.. I mean c'mon some of them may not even have used my app. 

I see what Google's trying to do here, they want apps rated which helps them in ranking the apps, fair enough. NO.. not fair. Cause a majority of these ratings are not even legit. They've been given under the temptation of getting more recommendations like my app. 

All I can do is hope that there are more good guys like me out there.

Reducing Image Sizes to Reduce the Size of Your apk

Wanted to write a quick blog post on this wonderful tool I found called ImageOptim. So the apk size of my app, BreakFree, had gone to 7mb. Which I was not very comfortable with. Many users, being on limited data, are fussy about downloading apps over 2-3 mb. My app was clearly well over. 

One of the things I had never considered before was reducing the size of my images. And the most easiest ways I found was by using this tool called ImageOptim. You can get it at imageoptim.com. Its super easy to use, unlike the other tools I explored. And it does a decent job with the images as well.

All my images are .pngs saved mostly on full compression out of GIMP. By processing them through ImageOptim I got an average reduction of about 16%-17% on my file sizes. I managed to reduce my apk size to 5.5mb. A far cry from the ideal 3 mb, but at least its better than 7mb.

Why the Mobile App Business Needs Immediate Intervention

The other day I read an article on why the mobile app business is NOT the business to be in. Some parts of the article made sense, and even though I want to rubbish the article, there is one part of me that believes in what the author wrote. 

We usually only want to believe and hear the rosy stories. The 18 year old who made millions by selling an app he developed in high school, or about the guy who moved from a one bedroom apartment to a mansion in Florida. Lets face it, the chances of that happening to us is zilch. Not because we cannot make decent apps, but because the app stores are now overcrowded. Yeah, theres tons of apps out there. And the worse part is most of these apps are free. I mean think about it, if there is a butt ugly app out there, doing 70% of the things that your charming app does, and is free, your out of the race man. No man in his right state of mind is going to pay 99 cents for your wonderful app if there is a free substitute out there.

Now its because of this precise reason that the ridiculous concept of in-app purchasing has blossomed. We cannot charge for our apps, but we have to make money, so what do we do? We give our apps away for free, in the hope that maybe 1% of the folks who download our app, purchase a part of it. The concept of in-app purchases is just so flawed. If it were to happen in retail, we would have Walmart selling free shampoos without caps. If you want to walk out with a cap on your shampoo, please pay 99 cents. 

This is where I think Google and Apple should intervene. If they want to make a business out of their app stores, want healthy competition, then they better do something. I don't know what, I really don't have a solution, but I hope they find one fast.