From Onxo: Gameloft And Others Cut Back on Android Dev

Gameloft, as well as other developers, are cutting back or abandoning Android app development all together.

This is what I'm afraid of. Right now, I don't see a lot of people getting excited about their Android phones. It's as simple as that. Android is one of the most exciting mobile platform on the market today for the media, bloggers, and armchair quarterbacks, but it just isn't generating the same kind of excitement among users as the iPhone and iPod Touch is doing for its users.

I've spent $$$ on my iPhone apps while I've spent less than $20 on my G1. Why is that? Here's a couple of reasons:

1. Even at 10K strong in the Android Marketplace, the few apps compare favorably in use, feel, and looks as even mediocre apps in the iTunes app store.
2. I don't know if any app I buy now will work with my future Android devices. Already, there is a lot of fear of fragmentation is what I'm hearing and reading about. Just thinking about the Microsoft Windows Mobile situation.

Basically, Google created a huge potential and has yet to made it work for developers as well as users. You can't blame users or developers for this.

Gameloft is reporting the iPhone has already grown to 13% of its revenue while iPhone apps are selling 400 times better than Android apps. One can attribute that the fact that the iPhone has been in the market two years longer than Google's mobile platform. Maybe.

However, after a year, I believe Apple had been bragging about one billion downloads.

Well, I attribute that to the beta-ish status of the G1. I am hoping the new devices like Droid and others running Android 2.0 will realize the full potential what Android can do.  We'll see what Google does to help its developers and it better come through big time.

Note:  Google is in the mobile market to sell ads and be a player in mobile search.  It gives away its apps for free.