SV Android Developer Meetup held a competition for its members to vote on what were their favorite Android Apps. Geogad’s Tour app was honored as the second most favorite app. Thanks for the support and the votes of appreciation. It is nice to know that Geogad’s app is so highly prized.

Be assured that we will keep up improving the app and Geogad’s entire travel content platform to provide the best services for all travelers.

As always, let us know what you think about Geogad’s services, especially its Android-based application.

Google has announced the winners of its Android Developer Competition 2. Check out the winning apps. For the Android developers reading this post, start planning your next Android apps!

Android news and advertising has been exploding lately, and the numbers are starting to show. The top selling Android game app grossed $23K in sales in the month of Oct. This game Robo Defense had 7600 downloads at a price of $2.99. The 70% take for the developers at Lupis Labs Software was about $16K. The important point is that the Android Market has seen a 50% increase in gross revenue from the month before. With so many new devices out in Q4, things are definitely looking up for the Android Market.

A couple of weeks ago, I answered a question about pricing difference on the iPhone and Android stores. But the real question that developers want answered is “Can I make enough money to justify the time and effort in creating an Android app?”

Of course, one of the best ways to make money from the Android Market is to win Google Android Developer Content. The price money of $100K can certainly cover the mandatory snack food required by programmers. But outside of this, is anyone making money on the store?

Judging by the stories of a few developers and companies, the answer is no,  or at least, not yet. The big reason cited is that thee are just a larger volume of customers on the iPhone. The other advantage that the iPhone has to Android is the iTunes desktop app that makes exploring the iPhone app store a relatively easy procedure. The Android Market is available only through the Android-powered phones with their small screen. One problem with this small screen market is that it really limits how apps are described to potential customers. On the iPhone, a full screen of text and photos are available for customers to preview. On the Android Market, app previews are limited to a small icon and 325 character long descriptions.

Other complaints about things like using Google Checkout to purchase apps seems a little weak. At this stage, I think it is a difference in the way the customers view app buying. On Android, there are many free apps of good quality. Why spend the money for premium apps? On the iPhone side, customers are so used to spending small amounts of money for apps that they pay for questionable apps simple because they are popular. For example, one app caled The Big Red Button is just a image of a big red button that plays a sound when it is pushed. Its function was clearly described in its preview, but still people purchased the app for $0.99 and were angry that they had bought this app at all.

Since Geogad has its Android-powered travel app on the Android Market and also hosts the Informal Android Developer Meetup, I am sometimes asked about the pricing difference between the Android Market and the iPhone Apps Store. Usually, this question comes from developers who are trying to decide between learning to program Android or iPhone first or from iPhone developers who are considering porting their iPhone apps to Android.

I really don’t have any direct knowledge of pricing on the various stores since all of Geogad’s apps are free and since Geogad makes its content available for free with ads over all of its various delivery channels.

However, I did spot this timely news article from fiercemobilecontent.com.  It quotes a report published by Distimo that says that apps are priced about the same on both stores. The article did point out two slight differences in the gaming category.

The most popular Android games typically cost between 99 cents and $5.95, with most selling for $2.99, while most App Store titles sell for 99 cents, with a few offered between $6.99 and $9.99.

…games remain the App Store’s best-selling category, with more titles in the premium Top 15 than in the free Top 15. Classic games are particularly popular in Android Market, where three out of the Top 15 are emulators. (The App Store does not approve emulators.)