Nirmal has just uploaded a new APK to the Google Play App Store, it will go live in a few hours! And, it is free, as in mangoes.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Free vs Paid Apps
To maximize both customer satisfaction and profit, should apps be free or paid? Users seem to maintain a tolerance for ads in free apps, which generates some money. One of Butterfruit Lab's current apps generates about the same amount of money with the ad-supported free app and the paid version with more content and no ads.
According to Tech Crunch, paid apps are dead. The rate of free apps appearing in app stores is increasing. If these apps offer satisfactory alternatives to paid apps, we've got a positive feedback loop. Here's a graph from Flurry Analytics showing the recent decrease in the popularity of paid apps:
What's interesting is that the $5.99 apps seemed to disappear completely in 2012, but reappear in 2013. Maybe paid apps are losing ground, but people are willing to pay a good about for high quality ones. What does everyone think about apps with paid "Pro" or "Ad-free" versions? Or, what about in-app purchases?
According to Tech Crunch, paid apps are dead. The rate of free apps appearing in app stores is increasing. If these apps offer satisfactory alternatives to paid apps, we've got a positive feedback loop. Here's a graph from Flurry Analytics showing the recent decrease in the popularity of paid apps:
What's interesting is that the $5.99 apps seemed to disappear completely in 2012, but reappear in 2013. Maybe paid apps are losing ground, but people are willing to pay a good about for high quality ones. What does everyone think about apps with paid "Pro" or "Ad-free" versions? Or, what about in-app purchases?
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
XML Parsing
A major help with my XML parsing was Abbas Suterwala. Thank you, man. XML parsing was tricky for a programming newb (of which Butterfruit Labs has many).
Here is his introduction on parsing, which he said better than I can:
"We are in an age where, typically, an application cannot work in total isolation and does not have all the data it needs to do its work. It generally has to communicate to some other application–maybe over the internet–and read or send some data to it.
However, the applications with which your app communicates might not be developed using the same technology as yours. For smooth data exchanges between your app and some other application you might be exchanging data in an open format like Extensible Markup language or XML.
An XML document is a human readable text document that contains some starting and ending tags with attributes and data in those tags. Most of the languages and platforms have support for parsing and creating XML documents in them. Android also provides us APIs so that we can work and process XML documents in our app with ease and flexibility. In this article, we are going to see how you can work effectively with XML documents in your Android app."
When you are done, you can make a simple XML page like this (also Abbas' example)
And the Parser can pull the info from it, in a form you can manipulate in your app.
Check out his XML Parsing page to learn just like I did!
Here is his introduction on parsing, which he said better than I can:
"We are in an age where, typically, an application cannot work in total isolation and does not have all the data it needs to do its work. It generally has to communicate to some other application–maybe over the internet–and read or send some data to it.
However, the applications with which your app communicates might not be developed using the same technology as yours. For smooth data exchanges between your app and some other application you might be exchanging data in an open format like Extensible Markup language or XML.
An XML document is a human readable text document that contains some starting and ending tags with attributes and data in those tags. Most of the languages and platforms have support for parsing and creating XML documents in them. Android also provides us APIs so that we can work and process XML documents in our app with ease and flexibility. In this article, we are going to see how you can work effectively with XML documents in your Android app."
When you are done, you can make a simple XML page like this (also Abbas' example)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <products> <product> <productname>Jeans</productname> <productcolor>red</productcolor> <productquantity>5</productquantity> </product> <product> <productname>Tshirt</productname> <productcolor>blue</productcolor> <productquantity>3</productquantity> </product> <product> <productname>shorts</productname> <productcolor>green</productcolor> <productquantity>4</productquantity> </product> </products>
And the Parser can pull the info from it, in a form you can manipulate in your app.
Check out his XML Parsing page to learn just like I did!
Android programming resources
What's a good resource for advancing android app programming?
Usually I head to Youtube and have to filter through a dozen videos before I can find someone I understand.
Usually I head to Youtube and have to filter through a dozen videos before I can find someone I understand.
Empty space turns black in Blogspot?
When I post .png's and .gif's to this Blogspot, the empty background goes black. It is quite troubling to Nirmal. Is that the template, or is it a Blogspot quirk?
Get ready for UWS
Now that Nirmal lives in NYC, it's time for a new Grubby Boston. I could have called it Grubby NY, but that's redundant. The entirety of NYC is also overwhelming, so Nirmal has begun with the Upper West Side, a neighborhood that is pretty boring most of the time. Indeed, a better, more up-to-date, and easier to use happy hour app would be doing the Upper West Side a social service. Introducing: Upper West Sliders. More details to follow...
n.b. Logo is still being rehashed.
n.b. Logo is still being rehashed.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Rupee woes
Check this out:
"Since January this year, the rupee has weakened 10.61%"
It's a great article from livemint.com about the declining value of the rupee. I remember when 44 rupees bought a dollar. It's a good thing Nirmal operates in USD.
"The rupee ended at 61.5213 per dollar, down 0.42% from its previous close of 61.2650. The partially convertible currency opened at 61.345 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 61.34 and 61.58, respectively
"Since January this year, the rupee has weakened 10.61%"
It's a great article from livemint.com about the declining value of the rupee. I remember when 44 rupees bought a dollar. It's a good thing Nirmal operates in USD.
"The rupee ended at 61.5213 per dollar, down 0.42% from its previous close of 61.2650. The partially convertible currency opened at 61.345 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 61.34 and 61.58, respectively
Since January this year, the rupee has weakened 10.61% and has lost
the second most after Japanese yen among Asian currencies during that
period."
For reference, a delicious butterfruit smoothie will run you around 20 rupees. I guess that's still a lot of butterfruit for your buck.
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