A harsh analysis, but entirely consistent with all I've been reading about Android Market experiences. The developers that luck out and get hundreds of thousands of downloads for a game or even another application, STILL hardly make a living out of it (for the limited time that the success lasts, that is).
It's enough for me to bury my own commercial Android plans. I'll just finish the hobby game I'm working on as best as I can and release it for free. For a few dollars a month I'm not going to pester users with ads either. Who knows, with that experience and changes in the market I'll still have a shot at an Android business later on.
For the braver developers in this thread who already have applications out there, and building on the network promotion mentioned here: Why don't you get together and set up your own system of referrals? That could work much better than just referring to your own other applications (if any) in a closed loop.
It's enough for me to bury my own commercial Android plans. I'll just finish the hobby game I'm working on as best as I can and release it for free. For a few dollars a month I'm not going to pester users with ads either. Who knows, with that experience and changes in the market I'll still have a shot at an Android business later on.
For the braver developers in this thread who already have applications out there, and building on the network promotion mentioned here: Why don't you get together and set up your own system of referrals? That could work much better than just referring to your own other applications (if any) in a closed loop.