Amazon vs Google Android market for a Publisher

Download Count
Amazon android market has proven to be better for me in terms of daily download counts for the last few days.  It was surprising since I thought less people have amazon market app on their machines. Amazon doesn't break down the device type, so, I cannot say if this is entirely because of kindle fire sales, or other devices as well.


Amazon has a specific category for kids. So, it is easier to find kid's apps. Amazon also has a review process, which results in better quality apps on their market. Google's Android market, on the other hand, has less restrictions on apps for children. So, there are kids apps on Google's Android market that require permission to read private information and connect to the internet. 


But, as a publisher, what matters is who does better with conversion and sales. I will post first month of paid app sales for Kindergarten Math on Google Market and Kindergarten Math on Amazon Market in a few weeks.


Statistics and Errors
For a publisher, it is invaluable to be able to see where their market is and how people who have downloaded the app are doing. Google is the clear winner here. Google breaks down the downloads by country, by device type, and operating system version. It helps a lot in terms of planning for next steps - which language to translate it to, which hardware to customize it for etc. Amazon provides no such data yet.


Google also provides detailed information about crashes. It gives an idea of the quality of the experience the user's are seeing. The information is detailed enough to be able to fix any issues in subsequent releases.

Publishing Ease
Google market is the clear winner in ease of publishing. The publisher just has to upload the app, and it's published. Newer versions are easier to publish too. The publisher can provide the description. The publisher can unpublish the app at any time. Publisher sets the price. In Amazon's case, amazon edits the description. Amazon also reviews the app when it is first published and every new version of the app too. New version takes another week or two to be reviewed and approved. Amazon can also discount your app at any time. Amazon won't allow unpublishing the app unless the app is being discontinued. So, as a publisher, once published on Amazon, you are stuck with it whether you like it or not.

First month of publishing a kids app on Amazon android market

Kindergarten Math Free was published on the amazon market at the end of November.
Amazon's market is a bit different from the android market. It takes longer to publish the app on the market. It has to be reviewed and approved by Amazon, which can take a week or two. I happened to publish it right around the time Kindle Fire came out as well. Kindle Fire has android based OS, so, it can run apps built for android.

Unlike the google android market, the amazon android market was very slow uptake initially. Then, around 12th of the month or so, it started seeing 30+ installs a day. My theory is that the app got approved for kindle later, or kindle activations kicked in around that time. Installs per day was rising slow and steadily, first to 50+, then 80+, then 120+. Last two days, it suddenly jumped to about 300+ installs. That is considerably more than the google android market downloads for the same day.

My theory is that is a lot of kindle fire christmas presents. People are now loading their presents up with apps. The amazon market also has a dedicated category for kids. It helps people find quality content for their kids more easily. Their recommendations engine also kicks in more-and-more as people download the app. More people download it, then, it shows more often in people-who-downloaded-this-also-downloaded. That drives more sales.

I don't expect the exponential part of the curve to last beyond the holiday season. Specially, because there are some negative reports on Kindle fire.

First month results of publishing a Kids app on Android Market

I published Kindergarten Math Lite to the google android market on Nov 14th, 2011. It started out well. Going to the 50-100 downloads point within a day. The number of downloads and the ranking kept rising, slowly. The number of total installs is in the android market is at 4000 right now. I expect it to cross into the coveted 5000-10000 category in roughly a week's time. It became the first app for keyword kindergarten a week ago.  There is about 100-200 downloads a day at this point. Below is the graph of the downloads for the first month.

The number of downloads rise during the weekends, and falls during the week. The peaks in the above graph are weekends and the valleys are mid-week. Perhaps, that's because it's a kids app. Parents are looking for ways to keep the kids busy and learning during the weekend.

The chart of active installs looks like a rising curve mirroring the total installs. The curve is beginning to flatten at the end. This could be because people who downloaded it a month ago are done playing - there is only 25 exercises in the free version. Those people are now starting to uninstall the app, affecting the active numbers.

Most of the downloads are in US. Next is Germany, then Canada. It is english app, so that explains the US and Canada uptake. The German uptake is probably because of the name of the app - Kindergarten is a German word, so, I expect it is a likelier search in Germany.

Overall, it is exceeding my expectations. I will post the amazon market uptake next.