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How Google Can (and Must) Fix the Android Market Experience

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Jeremy Toeman

The Android Market (droid’s equivalent to the iPhone App Store) is fundamentally broken. It’s a poor experience from start to finish, and exemplifies the grace with which Apple builds hardware and software products.  Unfortunately there’s no easy way to take screenshots directly on the device, so I’ve scraped around the ‘net to find images to reflect the issues I have.

Part 1: Finding Apps

Like most sites/services, finding apps works via Search and Browse.  You can Search for something by word/term, and see apps that match – it works “ok” but not super impressive.  Browse, on the other hand, is weak. The world is divided into Applications and Games.  Games has the following categories: “All”, “Arcade & Action”, “Brain & Puzzle”, “Cards & Casino”, and “Casual” – no sports, racing, music, RPG, strategy, or pretty much anything after the letter C. Once browsing, you must sort, either by Most Popular or Newest. This means that once popular, something will stay popular.  There’s no way to sort, or filter, or even view simple things like “most popular this week”, or “highest rated” or anything else. This dramatically impacts a user’s ability to find new good apps, since there’s just no view for that.  And this is from Google, the uber-kings of data.

Once you find an app that seems interesting, the next step is trying to decide if you want it / it will work.  Every app has a name, publisher, # of ratings, # of downloads, description, and comments.  NO SCREENSHOTS or anything, but a description.  The comments are sometimes useful, but typically not, as you’ll often see “crashed on my droid” or “new version seems unstable” or some other complaint.  The problem with these kinds of complaints is because of all the different Droid configurations, there’s no way to tell if the comments/ratings apply to your own device.

What Should Google do?

  • Explicitly add and require screenshots of all apps
  • Allow sorting by more fields (Recently popular, Highest Rated, Most Downloaded, etc)
  • Create more categories and/or sub-categories
  • Require developers, commentors, and all other data fields to be governed by device type (i.e. allow me to see top-rated apps specifically voted on by Droid Eris users, not all Android users)
  • Clean up the Featured Apps interface, as it is really poorly done
  • Make the Android Market Website have a “send to my Droid” button (as opposed to the current site, which is inherently worthless)

Part 2: Installing & Updating Apps

The installation process itself is fairly straightforward, once you find an app, you click the big Install button, then you are shown a cryptic screen with a bunch of warnings that you rapidly learn to ignore, then click OK.  My big complaint on this process is the aforementioned “car alarm” warnings.  I make the car alarm analogy because, much like the loud annoying car alarms we hear on random streets at random times, we pay them absolutely no attention anymore.  Which is inherently the opposite objective of a warning!  But with phrases like “Your personal information – read contact data” and “Phone calls – modify phone state”, there’s just no sense behind it.  It might as well show “PC Load Letter” and have the same amount of effectiveness.

My other gripe is on updating apps.  Since we’re still in the early stage of Droid application development, a lot of programmers are pushing frequent updates to their apps. This is great from a “shiny new toy” perspective, but getting annoying from a “stop showing me lots of alerts” perspective.  Also, there’s no way to update multiple apps simultaneously, nor auto-update an app.  And, since most developers at present are not displaying changelogs it’s hard to figure out if the update is worthwhile or not.  Further, it’s very unclear as to whether or not the comments/rating on an app are relative to the most current version or not. Lastly, and most dominant in the category of “how I know this is a Droid and not an iPhone experience,” every time I update an app, I see the warnings about that app. Every. Time.

What Should Google Do?

  • Make the warnings less technical sounding and more clear/comprehensible. “Modify phone state” is virtually meaningless to me, whereas “Make a phone call automatically” is pretty clear English.
  • Remove all the warnings that are “commonplace” – I inherently assume an app is capable of doing things like connect to the Internet, prevent my phone from sleeping, etc.
  • Allow users to “skip” an update, or enable auto-update for any given app.  Also allow users to update all apps.
  • Require that all upgrades/new releases of apps have explicit lists of what’s changed since prior version
  • Have ratings/comments be associated with both the “overall app” as well as the “current version”.
  • Only show the warnings screen when the new version of the app does (important) things that the previous version did not do.  In other words, if I’ve already installed Google Voice, which is capable of Making Phone Calls, and there’s an update to it, I don’t need to re-confirm that I want to allow it to Make More Phone Calls.

Part 3: Buying, Rating, and Uninstalling Apps

For the complaints I’d read, I was surprised at the overall seamlessness of purchasing an app through the Android Marketplace/Google Checkout process. Other than some confusing messaging, the step-by-step process worked the first time through it.  That said, I was disappointed it didn’t autofill any of my personal information (not even my name).  Also, there was a lack of clarity with regards to the fact that my credit card was “saved” by Google Checkout, with no clear way as to how to only do a one-time purchase.

Rating applications is easy, but per my aforementioned comments, needs more criteria.  My rating should get tied to the specific version of the app, and the platform I’m using as well.  Overall the rating/comment system is fairly thin, and could use improvement.

Uninstalling applications from an Android device is one of the more awkward experiences of the system.  There’s no “uninstaller”, instead you navigate back into the Market, find the app in My Downloads, then uninstall from there.  This is mostly awkward because everything else in Droid is either a click-and-drag or a long-click – so the navigation/usage paradigm you learn by using the system all of a sudden doesn’t come into play.  Now in reality I’m being a little dramatic, as once you’ve learned it, it’s easy, but it’s just another example of the kluge-like nature of the marketplace. Then again, if it’s so easy why does it take 9 steps on an eHow page (they don’t show the same path I use, but that’s also kind of the point)?

What Should Google Do?

  • Enable one-time payments that do not require saving credit card data!
  • Enable payments directly through mobile carriers (this should go straight to my Verizon bill) and/or third parties who work with carriers (for example BOKU, who is one of Stage Two‘s clients, but if anyone thinks I’d write this long a post just to reference a client in parentheses of another point, you clearly have too much time on your hands).
  • Moderate user interface “cleanup” and optimization for the checkout process
  • Again, fix the rating/comment system.  Include the “this comment was/wasn’t helpful” feature as well
  • Put an Uninstaller “app” inside Android, and let the user click-and-hold an app to invoke a menu (would make more sense than the current method anyway)

Conclusion

To be clear: There are some great apps in the Android market (current fave’s: Amazon, Evernote, Twidroid, wpToGo, Shazam, Robo Defense, Advanced Task Killer, Lookout) .  Droid is not a terrible platform. But there are some major user experience gaps today, and based on the seemingly endless list of new Droid devices slated to ship in 2010, improvement must happen soon.  I’m also not a fan of the numerous versions of Droid and the various enhancements built by Motorola, HTC, etc.

While Apple might get criticism for their closed-system nature, it most certainly allows them to build devices with consistently known experiences. Either Google or their manufacturers will need to do the same if they truly want to compete in the SuperDuperSmartyPantsPhone category.

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Posted in Mobile Technology | Tags: android, App Store, apps, droid, droid eris, eris, google, iphone, market, mobile | 15 Comments
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15 thoughts on “How Google Can (and Must) Fix the Android Market Experience”

  1. Avi Greengart says:
    February 1, 2010 at 2:34 pm

    Agreed with almost everything you have here. However, I am a fan – a big fan – of some of the Android UI variants, HTC’s Sense in particular. I find that it really smooths out the Android user experience.

    Reply
  2. Ed Kohler says:
    February 1, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    Great analysis. I’ve found vetting similar apps nearly impossible using the Market. For example, checking out podcast apps gives plenty of options but little insight into which ones are the best and why.

    Also, the search functionality doesn’t explain what apps exist but not for your version of Android. For example, Google Goggles returns zero results on my HTC Hero 1.5. Obviously the program exists. A note that it does but not for 1.5 phones would be helpful.

    Reply
  3. c0up says:
    February 2, 2010 at 3:00 am

    Err, I know you can’t take screenshots unless you root the phone, but the Android Market has undergone quite a few changes visually (I got the update with 1.6)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ma9Xh67Eyo <- took all of 15 seconds to Google…

    Reply
  4. Phil says:
    February 2, 2010 at 3:19 am

    I find the process of ROM updates as equally challenging, as some from HTC wipe out all your downloaded apps. The only way I have been able to find how to backup your apps is via some linux tools and the SDK.

    With iTunes, it doesn’t matter, your apps are backed up, you update your phone, your apps are synch’d the next time.

    I believe Amarok might be a good start as an iTunes equivalent and can be better.

    Reply
  5. ANkh says:
    February 2, 2010 at 3:22 am

    Actually, they updated it and it does now include screen-shots.

    Reply
  6. Keith Trimer says:
    February 2, 2010 at 4:05 am

    Totally disagree.
    Google are the masters of bringing quality to top and in my Android experiences that is exactly what happens.

    Much of the moaning is from the developer set that were early to Apple but late to Android – too bad.

    Reply
  7. Marco says:
    February 2, 2010 at 4:13 am

    Yeah, excellent post.

    Much of what you say is spot on..

    In fact you mention an app called lookout.. wondering what it was, I searched the market and for the life of me i am unable to find the fucking thing.

    searching for lookout or look gives me thoroughly useless results.

    Reply
  8. Alex Popescu says:
    February 2, 2010 at 4:37 am

    I think the most important thing that should be fixed about the Android Market is: **availability**! The Android Market paid apps are available in only 11 countries (the official page: http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138294). I find this extremely frustrating, as it pretty much make the Android phones pretty useless as smart/super phones.
    Unfortunately, Google doesn’t seem to care and even if the page is saying that “We’re working hard to add more countries, so please stay tuned!”, the forums are full of complains of this process taking more than 6 months without any results.
    I do agree with all you suggestions, but I (even if biased) do consider this limitation to be much more annoying than anything else.

    Reply
  9. C. Enrique Ortiz says:
    February 2, 2010 at 6:28 am

    Last Sept 09 I wrote an analysis — we reached similar conclusions…

    http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/mobility/2009/09/06/the-google-app-market-an-analysis/

    Cheers,
    ceo

    Reply
  10. john schneider says:
    February 2, 2010 at 11:09 am

    Sorry, android market place is just plain bad, the only path to success is to copy Apples iTunes exactly. It works, it’s pretty easy to use, you can find stuff, it’s pretty user friendly and most important, its accepted and trusted. Sometimes just going with the de facto standard and making it a standard is the correct path

    Reply
  11. Jeremy Toeman says:
    February 2, 2010 at 2:24 pm

    @Avi – I understand how the variants improve the overall experience of a given device, but they still cause confusion in device design/apps/etc

    @c0up @ANkh – my device runs 1.5, still an official release…

    @Keith – so you explicitly disagree with the points raised in the article, or just the title???

    @john schneider – I don’t disagree…

    Reply
  12. dotster says:
    February 5, 2010 at 7:27 pm

    I think the Market app definitely needs more work but the thing I currently love about Android is that one very powerful checkbox in the Settings to enable non-Market apps.

    I can do a Google search on my laptop and find an open source project in code.google.com or directly land on a vendors website that is hosting an APK file directly.

    Some repository sites even just scrap the real data of the Market app and link to the apps via a QR barcode.

    I wish there was a more unified way to get these results in one spot though, and to automate updating non-Market apps.

    Reply
  13. dotster says:
    February 5, 2010 at 7:32 pm

    I should also mention that I despise the idea of being locked down into one Market funnel such as iTunes.

    Try http://www.dazzboard.com for anyone who’s looking to sync apps.

    Reply
  14. zunguri says:
    February 16, 2010 at 12:23 am

    The Apple fanboys are funny (as is the lone Google fanboy) with the party line positions.

    I’d like to hear more about what the rewrite of AM will be.

    Reply
  15. Kevin says:
    November 24, 2010 at 10:46 am

    I agree. Google MUST polish up the Marketplace. The biggest complaint I’ve heard is that there’s no way for a user to filter apps, especially adult-themed apps, from search. This would be a BIG plus for parents wanting to give their child an Android powered phone for the holidays.

    Reply

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Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

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