Android News
Android Market alternatives say they don’t view new web store as a threat
February 4, 2011 | by Andrew Kameka
Android Apps
“So long AppBrain,” one of our readers said on Twitter when the Android Market web store opened its doors on Wednesday. With Google finally making it possible to browse and install apps from a computer, what purpose would AppBrain serve for end users?
Of course, AppBrain, Android Zoom, and other third-party Market browsers aren’t going away quietly. We reached out to a few sites to see what they thought about Google’s new web store, and received common responses to our questions. These sites recognize that Google provides a challenge, but there’s still room for them to outperform the official Market website with useful features (Michael Heller even points out where the new Market falls short).
Bernat Guitart of AndroidZoom says “There’s no fear at all” that people will stop using his website. There were already good third-party sites in competition with his site, but AndroidZoom’s traffic continues to rise. Mathijs Vogelzang of AppBrain is equally bullish, saying that he anticipates some new users who may have discovered AppBrain to opt to use Google Market instead, but feels confident that many will want more.
“We have always seen ourselves as a discovery and sharing service on top of the Android Market,” Vogelzang said. “Most of these features that AppBrain has are not offered by the Google Webstore. In fact, the initial version of AppBrain that we launched 12 months ago already had more features.”
The new Android Market is seen as a browser with limitations, which gives third-party websites hope that they can remain relevant thanks to their discovery options and unique features. AppBrain’s creators feel confident that their hot apps, personalized recommendations, change history, links to extensive reviews, and strong filtering options will keep the thousands of people who use the site coming back.
Guitart meanwhile is confident in AndroidZoom’s ability to “offer users an alternative, easy and reliable way to get all the top apps and that add value to Android developers.” Major changes on the way will make the site even better, he says.
Google is a notorious beta company, so feedback from users will likely lead to the Android team adopting some of the features that make these third-party sites viable. At the moment, these sites remain just as focused to enhancing user experience and aren’t threatened by the competition from Google. In fact, the introduction of the web store may actually help app discovery tools continue to grow.
Ouriel Ohayon of app discovery tool AppsFire told Androinica.com:
“We knew from day one this was going to happen and actually we hoped for it earlier as we needed URL links for apps. Same for social sharing since this is what we need to build AppTrends, our live ranking for apps. So our way is to continue to innovate from the mobile and provide the best discovery experience from there which is still the case to date.”
Android users may not being saying goodbye to these websites and market browsers after all.
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I will still use appBrain, I like the way they accurate apps and the social integration is really useful.
As Wraith404 points out, once the OTA install was broken, that removed a lot of the selling point of AppBrain – I'm not interesting in social sharing or any of that rubbish, so as soon as the market went live and I saw that it worked, I uninstalled appbrain and deleted my account.
While I think the Market on the web is a great start there is still a lot of work need on its functionality other than able to install apps directly. Appbrain provides the various type of filtering which I find very useful, discovering new apps and updating of apps. Point example…dynamite fishing (awesome game btw) I found on Appbrain under new but on the Market it was no where to be found or even hard to find. Until then I'll be still using Appbrain and the Market still as secondary.
App brain lists the history of the app, including the price adjustments. I don't see that on the google market.
I've been thinking about this all day actually because I love AppBrain, and it is the main market alternative (even though it uses the actual market to download apps) I've used since I started using Android. It is still the best for finding apps and seeing relevant reviews, etc. However, the new market allows that OTA install, which I really miss at AppBrain (the old "Fast Installer"). My recent post Virgin Mobile Samsung Intercept vs The LG Optimus V
but i think android really want that kind of store,now we ezy find to all app here,thanks for that, My recent post Blogging Tips- Long posts vs Short posts
but i think Android really want that kind of store,now we ezy find to all app here,thanks for that, My recent post Blogging Tips- Long posts vs Short posts
Won't change the way I use AppBrain, information source. But always used Market to purchase. And now the Market is even easier to use to purchase.
AppBrain is still the better market "alternative" on my phone though. Yeah, it has more features and is more robust.
Hi guys! Try Bazaar and Aptoide as alternative to Android Market, As developer let me share with you the following features: - Bazaar's site allows you to create your own market; - Under the motto "Own your market!" you can now have your own Aptoide repository with your applications. - Upload and manage your applications and share them with the world or just your friends. - Easily browse the available Android Apps and choose which to install from your Android device. - Discovering more in http://bazaar.aptoide.org/ The Aptoide app allows users to easily install applications from distributed repositories, without having to rely on the Google Market. The Aptoide enables you the following extra features: - Add repositories via QR-code. - Support for private repositories with login credentials (through the standard httpaccess file). - Faster reloading of the list of applications from the repository - Many other features and bug fixes. Best regards, Fábio
you can find here a list of alternatives : http://android-apps-blog.blogspot.com/2011/04/and…
Agree that there are good third-party sites in competition with AndroidZoom. There are many quality and high competitive alternatives to Android marketalternatives to Android market
Agree that there are good third-party sites in competition with AndroidZoom. There are many quality and high competitive alternatives to Android market