In terms of the Android Market, perhaps Google is learning that it has to communicate better with developers; that throwing up apps to see what happens is just not going to work when dealing with third party developers.
As it turns out, some developers have been complaining that app download counts tracked by the Market have been inaccurate. For any developer that sells apps, that's lost revenue. For developers providing free apps, the apparent loss of downloads can affect ranking, hence the quantity of future downloads, and therefore the size of an end-user base and any upside revenue that might accrue from having a large user base.
Other users have noted that sometimes apps are hard to find when using the Market's own search process. One developer could locate his app when conducting a direct query, but that the app was not visible in search results.
"What disturbs me deeply is that there's really no support system for the Android Market," says Bo Stone of the AndroidGuys. "There's no bug tracking, no support phone or even email or any way to file a problem ticket."
The Android Market does have a help forum, but not many end users or developers are likely to find that a reasonable solution. Developers are customers, and customers have certain expecations about levels of support.
It appears that Android Market does not yet operate as a retail software outlet normally must.
Some developers report that the total number of downloads for their respective applications had in some cases dropped by several thousand, for example. Google will get better at this, but the issues illustrate the growing pains any firm, no matter how accomplished, can experience when moving into a more traditional and direct retail environment.
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Android Guys
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