Licensing & selling an Android app

[Andrew Henshaw]

Yes, free and paid versions are treated as separate apps in all the stores ive used, including both Apple and Android.  However it doesn't take very long as most of the time is taken preparing descriptions,  screen shots etc. which can be mostly the same for both versions of the app.

The actual time taken to complete the application process on any of the stores is usually very short,  its the review period that takes the time.  

In my experience,  Googles Play store doesnt have a review period so its instant,  Amazon seem to take 2-3 days (ive read it can take longer but 2-3 days is my experience) while Apple take almost exactly a week for iOS apps.

You can of course distribute an Android app without a store at all if it helps.

Andy




On 2 Jun 2012, at 23:16, Richard Miller wrote:

> Thanks, Andy, for that useful information.
> 
> To post both a free and a paid version of an app at Google, does one need to repeat the entire application process twice?
> 
> 
> 
> On 6/2/2012 4:41 PM, Andrew Henshaw wrote:
>> I have an app in both the Google Play and Amazon stores,  and find Google is the much better option for me.
>> 
>> With the Amazon system you have to submit every update for review and then wait.  If you want to withdraw a product from sale you have to write to them.  With the Google system you can simply upload a new apk,  activate it and its good to go.  You can also remove it from sale,  change the price etc etc.  Also sales wise,  for me the Google store sells in a 6/1 ratio compared to the Amazon store.
>> 
>> A couple of things to watch are, as mentioned beforeand unlike the Apple store,  you cannot switch a product from free to paid,  and the manifest is used to work out the devices the app will run on and this will include Android tablets bey default so make sure you app resizes to all the different Android resolutions or wait for the negative reviews to roll in.
>> 
>> As far as protection on Android goes,  I dont think ive seen an app that has not been cracked and is not available for download through a torrent site.   My apps rely on quite a lot of interaction with a web feed,  so I can simply change the location of the feed between releases which renders any cracked copies useless.  Its not ideal,  but the best I can do with my abilities at the moment.
>> 
>> Andy
>>