I understand the problems with e-commerce for Apps. I am willing to pay for an app that is good and I know that the pay version of HamSatDroid will be good. Please do provide some means for those of us outside the Google Play so providing a for pay side load option will be good.
Tom Schuessler, N5HYP
-----Original Message----- From: Gregg Wonderly [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2013 9:14 AM To: David Johnson Cc: Tom Schuessler; AmsatBB Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: Please make available for Kindle as wel.
One of the most interesting and perhaps frustrating thing about the Android platform is this "my store", "your store", "no store" interplay between all the vendors who have created devices using the "open source" Android platform from Google. With Google producing devices as well, their ownership of the "Google Play" store, and demand for "paid entry" into that marketplace, their competitors, Amazon and B&N etc., are reluctant to "play together".
So, developers are strung out, being forced to participate in multiple economies, which doesn't scale very well for small operations like you'll find in HAM radio software teams. Walmart had a $99 or so deal on a Chinese tablet over Christmas. That tablet had "no store" available to the purchasers to start with. The only choice was to install the Amazon store and be locked into that economy. There is, always the opportunity to root these devices and spend the time and energy to manage the whole thing yourself. But, without a "Store" application, you're limited to what you can get, based on what developers are willing to "give away."
In this day and age, I think we are past the time of "free software". I think it is important to understand how that diminishes the worth of people doing good things for HAM radio, to have such expectations.
Certainly, many people have limited incomes, so I understand that to be natural pressure on the scale of the software economy in HAM radio, overall.
In the end, open source is a great thing, when people have time to give away, or are using the same software to make money elsewhere. But, all of these vertical market applications for HAM radio have some very focused uses, and not very many of them are gold mines in the public markets.
Gregg Wonderly
On 1/16/2013 2:37 AM, David Johnson wrote:
Hi,
We will do our best but we cannot target every platform specifically.
I already build for four google devices. Nexus 1,S,7 & 10.
The kindle fire and Barnes and Noble devices have to be side loaded and we would have to set up a download site and PayPal payment mechanism for the paid version.
73
Dave
Since us Kindle users can not directly access the Google Play site, please consider making the apps available to us Kindle Fire and Fire HD users. I like the functionality and am looking forward to the new features.****
*Tom Schuessler*
*2713 Lake Gardens Drive*
*Irving, Texas 75060*
*972-986-7456*
*214-403-1464 (Cell)*
Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb