My Opinion of Alternative Markets for Android Apps

Have you tried alternative market places such as slideme.org? It would be interesting to hear opinions about them. - Mikko Pelkkala

Thanks Mikko for telling me about slideme.org. I was not aware of this alternative Android app market.

I am actually not a stranger to these alternative markets. My first Android tablet, the Archos 101, did not come with Google's Android Market pre-installed. Instead, the Archos tablet houses AppsLib instead. AppsLib specialises in Android apps that have been tested to work on tablets.

Ironically, I downloaded the Google Android Market APK from AppsLib which I installed on my Archos so that I could access the Android Market - later Google Play -  from my Archos tablet.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


The presence of alternative markets for Android apps is actually a strength of the Android eco-system, as compared to the lockdown nature of Apple's App Store or Microsoft's Marketplace. Apple's and Microsoft's app stores are like communism, where a central authority decides what's halal or haram for you, while Google practises true laissez-faire capitalism, where everything is left up to the individual. As I don't subscribe to communism, I prefer Google's freer capitalistic eco-system despite the fact that it is messier and less secure.

However, due to the nature of things, I am not optimistic that the alternative Android markets will be as successful as Google Play.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If there are more Android users, more developers will be attracted to develop apps for Android than for the competition. And the more apps there are for Android, the more appealing the Android system will be for potential customers. This is the typical network effect in modern marketing. And in network effect markets, everything is a numbers game.

Because Apple has more apps for its iOS devices than Google has for Android, Google needs to grow the number of available apps in the Google Play Store to compete effectively against Apple.

But for the size of the apps library in the Google Play Store to grow as huge as possible, Android developers must sell their apps through the Google Play Store to swell the store size.


However, growing the size of the Google Play store is a detriment to the alternative Android stores!


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The more comprehensive the Google Play Store becomes, the less relevant all other alternative stores will become compared to Google Play. If every Android app can be downloaded or purchased from the Google Play Store, then customers will find little incentive to download or purchase the same apps from other store fronts.

From my perspective, alternative stores will never be as successful as Google Play or Amazon Appstore simply because of the size of the 2 behemoths. Whatever the smaller stores attempt to do, Google can always do the same, and thus always besting the efforts of the alternative stores.

• If a store offers a curated experience for customers, there is nothing to stop Google from doing the same thing.

• If a store offers a cheaper price for its apps, Google can match the price.

Unfortunately, we see similar situations cropping up in other areas like e-books, digital music, movie downloads etc. Currently, these areas are also dominated by single players (Amazon, iTunes). If the giants maintain a certain level of user friendliness in their stores, whether through easy site navigation, comprehensive selection, easy purchasing processes, it will be very hard to convince users to switch from the giant stores to the alternative stores.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Of course, it is possible to dislodge incumbents. Google was able to defeat all other search engines (Alta Vista, Yahoo, MSN etc) to become the predominant search engine today - despite being very late to the search market game. Apple was not the first to make an MP3 player or a mobile phone, but once it did, it swept the floor off the previous incumbents.

To beat the Google store, an alternative store must provide a user experience far superior to what Google is offering. I think this is very tough to do at the moment. Google is really at the top of its game, and whatever the small stores can do, Google will be able to replicate the function, and even beat them to it.

However, because running such app stores are not expensive (after all, we are just dealing with electronic bits), I think that these alternative markets will still thrive, although they will not be wildly profitable. Smaller stores may have to serve niched markets, rather than become general app stores like the Google Play Store.  Trying to become another Google Play Store will not be a successful strategy. However, most of the alternative stores appear to be doing exactly this. I don't think they will succeed.