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Thread: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilities ?

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    Fanatic Member alexandros's Avatar
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    Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilities ?

    Hi there,
    do you think that Adware Android / Ios Apps are more profitable than making revenue from Adware Windows Applications ?

    I have seen the number of installations for android apps and they are enormous.

    The only problem is that most mobile apps are crap and stupid. Only shiny graphics and games.

    You would have to hire a graphic designer to do one.

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    It's a more interesting question than I had expected. The comparison is whether you catch more fish with lots of crappy nets or fewer, bigger nets. I would guess that the answer is highly complicated. You say MOST mobile apps are crap and stupid, but if you got the one that became a cultural phenomena...then you'd certainly do better there. On the other hand, if you made a series of apps that nobody wanted to use...you'd get nothing.

    Considering how bizarre peoples interests can be, figuring out which is better seems like nothing more than rolling the dice.

    It reminds me of a story about Elmo dolls. Apparently, the Elmo character is unusually popular with kids to the point where pretty nearly anything with Elmo sells, but it just frustrates the owners of Sesame Street, because they have no idea why Elmo is so popular. No other line sells well, but Elmo sells on anything. That's kind of how apps are, too. Most are crap and stupid...and every now and then one takes off for no apparent reason.
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    A recent survey by a marketing firm called App-Promo shows that 59% of developers don't manage to make enough money from app sales to break even on costs, and 80% don't generate enough revenue to support a standalone business.
    May 2012

    If you could predict what will sell you could retire at 21! The reality is that quality has next to nothing to do with popularity (just listen to chart singles!!!!) Profitability is a rare and precious commodity which almost always owes far more to luck than judgement.
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    One question is whether you mean Windows Desktop applications or WinRT/Metro applets.

    Users are really unaccustomed to ad-laden Desktop applications, so you might find it a tough revenue model there.

    And of course basically nobody has WinRT devices (unless you count Win8.x suckers, many of whom will never download very many Store Applets and are probably trying as hard as they can to get Win7 installed).

    As for the majority-share mobile OSs, in-app ads are better tolerated at the present time. But I agree ad-based revenue models are very weak even there.


    The real money is in Enterprise applications anyway.

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker View Post
    It's a more interesting question than I had expected. The comparison is whether you catch more fish with lots of crappy nets or fewer, bigger nets. I would guess that the answer is highly complicated. You say MOST mobile apps are crap and stupid, but if you got the one that became a cultural phenomena...then you'd certainly do better there. On the other hand, if you made a series of apps that nobody wanted to use...you'd get nothing.

    Considering how bizarre peoples interests can be, figuring out which is better seems like nothing more than rolling the dice.

    It reminds me of a story about Elmo dolls. Apparently, the Elmo character is unusually popular with kids to the point where pretty nearly anything with Elmo sells, but it just frustrates the owners of Sesame Street, because they have no idea why Elmo is so popular. No other line sells well, but Elmo sells on anything. That's kind of how apps are, too. Most are crap and stupid...and every now and then one takes off for no apparent reason.
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Well tickle me Elmo.

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    It really doesn't matter what platform the app is on. All that matters is the number of people who use it. dilettante makes a good point about desktop users not being well used to ad-supported apps these days, although a poor one about Windows 8. If users can easily get an alternative app without ads then they'll likely do so. That is more likely on the Windows desktop than any mobile platform.

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Write an app that, when you tickle the phone it giggles - sure fire winner.
    Then v2 is a cat that purrs.

    That's it - I'm giving up the day job......

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Disturbingly those are probably extremely sellable. Sometimes... just sometimes, mind... I really do hate the world.
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    Smooth Moperator techgnome's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    You're probably right... although I don't think they would be sellable, but I bet they would generate mass amounts of ad revenue... especially if it's of just half-decent quality.

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I think the cat that purrs is the one to start with. If the phone already has a vibrate mode, especially if it has one that has variable intensity, it might be very much like a cat....and then there are even more disturbing possibilities.
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    If you develop for Win8 you'll have a lot less competition.

    Native Windows 8 apps remain unpopular with developers

    Are developers driving the market such that iOS and Android gets the love and then the market buys into those platforms because of the apps? Or are developers reacting to the market, going to where the money is? I'm a great believer in "follow the money" -- it seems clear to me that developers are following customer interest in the platforms and that developers don't have any ability to drive platform adoption simply by creating software.
    Regardless, the relevant data here seems to suggest that developers only have a passing interest in developing native apps for Windows 8.
    Bizarre use of the term "native." In this context it seems to include both managed code (.Net) and script (HTML5+JS) as well as C++. I guess we're talking at a layman/marketing level, odd since the article is about software developers.

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    Smooth Moperator techgnome's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I stopped reading when I hit the charts... and the explanation of how he did his analysis... by pulling #'s of questions about certain areas... it's the same "analysis" that people use here to justify that VB6 is more popular than VB.NET... just because there's more questions... Ummm.... no, that's not the case at all. Maybe the reason people aren't asking questions about Windows Phone on SO is because they are getting it from other (better IMHO) places, such as here. Or, since the .NET platform can be used on it, they already KNOW the answers and don't need to ask.... it's crap. That said, I'm not sure I have a better formula for analysis.

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I'm not impressed with Windows Store Apps, either. I can understand that MS would want to be in that arena, but that's not what interests me. Tablets are essentially crippled computers, as they (mostly) stand right now. You can run thousands of things on them, but what you can't run is the same things you are running on your desktop. The Google approach is: Make the desktop act like the mobile. That will work for some, but it's short-sighted. Technology keeps on cruising forwards. The Surface Pro II is a tablet that runs a full Windows, and isn't crippled in that way. At the moment, it is also expensive and relatively heavy, but anybody who thinks that's not going to change has slept through the last couple decades. A couple years ago, no tablet would run desktop apps. Now the second generation of one that does so is out. Subsequent generations will bring down the price and the weight.

    I'd say that we are in a transition period where you have to choose mobile or desktop for all software unless you want to do something peculiar. We've been in this kind of a world before, where the computer at your office was quite different than the one you could have in your home. The software was different, the performance was different, the hardware was different, and so on. Technology advanced and people tended to have the same stuff running at home that they had at the office. Every time somebody on here talked about a new tablet that was "the next big thing", I would ask if it would run VS. The answer was always no, but now the answer is yes. That's how technology moves. Eventually, it seems likely that we will have smartphones that can run the same software as our desktops....well, except for the screen issue. That 'eventually' is probably only a few years away. Before that, we'll have better and better tablets that are capable of running all of our desktop apps.

    For most people, the app IS the computer. In other words, the computer is the tool that they use to run the app we want to use. I'd say that it is more likely that people will be happy to be able to run their desktop apps on their tablet rather than being pushed to abandon their desktop apps in favor of whatever the mobile replacement is.
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Quote Originally Posted by techgnome View Post
    I stopped reading when I hit the charts... and the explanation of how he did his analysis...
    I suspect it is just as flawed as the approach used to generate the TIOBE Index, which always makes outlandish claims. For example, how can it really be possible that C programming perpetually ranks as high as they claim when C programmers are actually fairly rare?

    But if you reject platform market share, number of store apps, and programmer questions asked as measures... you aren't left with much to go on. When you plot two of the metrics against each other as he does in that article and see a high correlation it gets harder to ignore though.

    I suppose we need a new factor that can be measured and see how it stacks up against the others. I can't think of anything else with any objectivity to it.
    Last edited by dilettante; Jan 4th, 2014 at 10:55 PM.

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker View Post
    For most people, the app IS the computer. In other words, the computer is the tool that they use to run the app we want to use. I'd say that it is more likely that people will be happy to be able to run their desktop apps on their tablet rather than being pushed to abandon their desktop apps in favor of whatever the mobile replacement is.
    It's all very well being able to run VS on a tablet but would you want to actually use VS on a tablet using the touch-screen and no keyboard? That's where Windows Store apps come in. There's a desktop version of Remote Desktop, as there has always been, and there's a Modern UI version as well. Most desktop users would prefer to use the desktop version if they are using their computer/device on a physical desktop but, I can assure you, the Modern UI version is significantly more comfortable if you're using your fingers. That's something that Windows 8 provides that no other OS does: the ability to use the most suitable paradigm in any situation. The question is whether it will still do that when Microsoft move to a single Windows OS for all platforms, which they say is their intention.

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Well, Microsoft appears to be trying to move things like VS to the cloud anyway:

    Microsoft Launches Visual Studio Online, VS2013, .NET 4.5.1

    Visual Studio Online provides developers with hosted source control, using either Git or Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC). The sources for Visual Studio Online projects are readily available to sync to users' desktop when logged into Visual Studio, Somasegar said. It also features tools to support agile development processes, with work items and agile planning.

    The online version's hosted build service enables developers to move their project's builds to the cloud, and build results are available in both Visual Studio Online and Visual Studio 2013. Every Visual Studio Online account provides 60 minutes of free build time per month, making it friction-free to get started with hosted build, Somasegar said.
    "Just as applications are moving to the cloud, it makes sense for development tools to move there for the same reasons: scalability, ease of acquisition, lowered cost of ownership and ease of use," said Kurt Bittner, principal analyst for Application Development & Delivery at Forrester Research. "The support for analytics, making them an integral part of the application delivery process, will change the way that organizations gather feedback from their applications and use that information to deliver better solutions."

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    Smooth Moperator techgnome's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    No, I wouldn't use the touch screen for development in VS... I'd dock it and use the mouse & keybaord... and probably and external monitor too... that's what I do with my laptop... But if I'm in a meeting, need to take some quick notes, or doing stuff other than direct development, yeah, I'm likely to use the touchscreen and what not. Probably still going to use the detachable keyboard though for typing emails and documents, I don't see me using the touch screen for that...

    I'd much rather carry a tablet to my meetings and client sites than my laptop... even though it is a lot lighter than my old one, it still can be a pain to lug around. IF I could get a Surface PRo 2 with a docking station that allows for a keyboard, mouse and monitor, and has adequate storage (32, 64, 128 won't cut it, neither will 256)... that would probably be ideal for me.

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Well we've wandered quite a bit from the topic, which was about development targets and using an ad-based revenue model.

    Quote Originally Posted by alexandros View Post
    The only problem is that most mobile apps are crap and stupid. Only shiny graphics and games.

    You would have to hire a graphic designer to do one.
    "Most of" all applications are crap. Look at all the web-kiddies who want to get into programming and end up asking tons of questions about skinning instead of functionality.

    If you have a useful application you can just stick close to platform guidelines and provide value instead of throwing money down the graphic designer rathole.

    Yahoo's Android email client is leaps and bounds more friendly and useful than the mess they made of their web client this past year. Amazon's mobile clients are quite easy to use, generate tons of sales, and don't use any doofy graphic designer produce either.

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Quote Originally Posted by dilettante View Post
    "Most of" all applications are crap. Look at all the web-kiddies who want to get into programming and end up asking tons of questions about skinning instead of functionality.

    If you have a useful application you can just stick close to platform guidelines and provide value instead of throwing money down the graphic designer rathole.

    Yahoo's Android email client is leaps and bounds more friendly and useful than the mess they made of their web client this past year. Amazon's mobile clients are quite easy to use, generate tons of sales, and don't use any doofy graphic designer produce either.
    On that score, sir, we are agreed.

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Actually, I would use VS on a tablet, but I'd use the keyboard screen cover rather than drag and drop. It's actually the main reason I'm going to get one. I also intend to investigate solar chargers. Perhaps people can guess where I'm going with this, but you'd be wrong: I'm going biking for a few weeks, and am looking for a portable option. Form much work, I'd stick with the laptop, for the better keyboard and screen, but eventually, I think that a tablet with a docking station is the way I will be working. For my mobile lifestyle, I like the way things are headed for the hardware side of things.

    As for VS in the cloud....that's not so good. The cloud means you have to have connectivity. That's not a huge issue in most of this country....except where I am. If you look at coverage maps for services, Idaho is a big empty space. There's an awesome cabin that I'd like to spend a couple weeks working from. However, there are no roads out there, and the closest I can get with a car leaves me with a 26 mile hike. I won't be using the cloud out there. There are MANY more accessible sites where I actually HAVE worked, that are no more wired than that remote cabin. This state has a lot of wilderness and a dearth of people. Cell coverage is pretty spotty and internet options are even more so....with some notable oddities. One of the more remote fish traps in the state has awesome DSL connection speeds. I've never figured that one out. There is a ranch a few miles down the road, but up the road...is an elk....and nothing more till the road fades away into the brush. That trap is the end of a long road that begins a ways outside of a town with a population of 24. There aren't many houses along the road, as it is mostly large ranches. But out at the end....is awesome DSL strength.
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    Super Moderator jmcilhinney's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Quote Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker View Post
    Actually, I would use VS on a tablet, but I'd use the keyboard screen cover rather than drag and drop. It's actually the main reason I'm going to get one. I also intend to investigate solar chargers. Perhaps people can guess where I'm going with this, but you'd be wrong: I'm going biking for a few weeks, and am looking for a portable option. Form much work, I'd stick with the laptop, for the better keyboard and screen, but eventually, I think that a tablet with a docking station is the way I will be working. For my mobile lifestyle, I like the way things are headed for the hardware side of things.
    If you want to be able to carry around a genuine tablet at times then maybe this is not for you but you might want to look into the Dell XPS 12 that I have. It's a powerful laptop with an i7 and 8GB of RAM with an excellent keyboard and passable touchpad that can flip its screen around be used just like a regular tablet. One of the nice perks of the flippable screen is that you can use it in "tent" mode (an upsidedown V) to watch videos. I also use it on my lap with the screen flipped but open about 30-40 degrees to watch videos or play games on the train commute to and from work. I see all these people with tablets having to hold it in their hand to be able to see the screen but I can just let it rest comfortably.

    The drawbacks are that it has the battery life of a laptop rather than a tablet, although it's not too bad when compared to other laptops, and it's also heavier than a genuine tablet so it's not comfortable to hold in your hands for too long as you would a tablet. It also has a laptop price tag. There's no device that's perfect for all situations but this one is an excellent compromise for my needs. There's also the new XPS 11, which is similar but uses a different configuration.

    http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-12-9q33...id=xps-12-9q33
    http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-11-9p33...id=xps-11-9p33

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I have a pretty nice laptop, so my goal for this is light weight and long battery life. The Surface Pro II seems to be the best candidate in that arena, at the moment. The reviews suggest that the battery life really is pretty good. The weight is higher than I would like, but that's life. I'm not thinking of carrying such a thing backpacking, but it isn't out of the question.
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Why Does Windows Have Terrible Battery Life?

    Surface Pro 2 doesn't exactly shine when it comes to battery life. When only compared to other 2013 devices it really looks bad.

    However:

    UPDATE: Turns out the Surface 2 Pro was shipped with bad firmware. Once updated, the WiFi adapter enters lower idle power states and this helps a lot, going from 6.6 hours of browsing time to 8.3 hours, a 25% improvement! That puts it much more in line with the rest of the field, at least, even if it doesn't achieve Mac like runtime.

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Yeah, of that I was already aware. Frankly, it's a full-on PC in a tablet format. I'm not surprised that it makes a few trade-offs. I'd really like to see that in a sub-pound package....which may happen one of these days, but that's ok. The point, for me, is that it is capable of doing the thing I want it to be able to do: Run VS. That's a feature that no other tablet on the market has, to date, With the firmware update, the battery life on the Surface 2 Pro is pretty good, though not the best. On weight, it's towards the back of the class, but if all I wanted was something that had awesome battery life and light weight, and didn't care about what it ran, I'd get an Etch-a-Sketch.
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Well if you want power, and a foot in the future as well, there's always:

    Asus unveils Transformer Book Duet Windows/Android, tablet/laptop hybrid

    On the heavy side too, though I haven't heard what the detached tablet alone weighs.


    I'll go fire up the Roku so I can watch the ASUS keynote on TV. Was supposed to start 2 hours ago, maybe the weather got in their way.
    Last edited by dilettante; Jan 6th, 2014 at 04:59 PM.

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    A foot in your fantasy of the future, you mean.

    I'm not sure how this is not communicating: If you are the type to bounce from job to job to stay with a particular technology, then you can decide which technology you want to work with. If you are self-employeed, or a hobbyist, then again, you can choose which technology you want to work with. I work for a company that dictates what I will write and for what platforms. If they want to change to use Android on everything, then so will I, but as long as they are saying that they will not support Android, then it would be pretty stupid of me to jump over there. I write internal apps, only. If I were to write an app for an OS that the agency won't support, what good would that do anyone?

    However, I also think you are wrong about the direction the technology is going, and the speed at which it is going there. I feel that your bitterness is skewing your view. I've seen this happen with two or three previous technologies and don't see anything fundamental that would make this different....unless MS truly does abandon the corporations and the government, which it might, but it would be incredible. Until it becomes credible, I just don't believe it.
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I get an impression you may be running scared, trying to hold on to a past that is slipping away. Don't worry, even Cobol programmers can still find work.

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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I'd hardly call it running... more like a leisurely stroll... but that's OK, because that's my choice. And if/when my employer decides to change platforms and re-train us all... I'll have the choice to roll with it and learn something new, or take a hike and find some new place to hang my hat. But I'll deal with that when the time comes. Meanwhile, like Shaggy, with the corporate-like enterprise clients I deal with, the current platform isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I figure I've only got about 15 years left in this industry anyways... less if I hit the lottery.

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    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I'm not running in any way, scared or not. I've lived through enough of these that I'm not going to get ruffled by another. I wasn't ruffled by the earlier ones, either, especially since I'm already dual career, so if things change in ways I don't like, I can always go back to where the degrees are. I'd say I'm old enough that the change won't happen before I retire anyways, but that's not true. It's likely that I will work for another 20 years. Twenty years back, I think we were talking about NeXT, and Apple was collapsing...yeah, that would be about right, though I think the debacle of OS 8 hadn't happened, yet.

    I keep an eye on the new technology, unless there is somewhere worth going, but it doesn't matter at this point, because there is no chance that we will be changing platforms in the next five years. We probably won't change then, either. The one place that might change is the web, which would be OS agnostic. At the moment, though, web technology is not good enough to do the things I'm doing. It may never be, too, because I tend to work with places that may never have web connections in our lifetimes. It's worth paying attention to, but it's not there, yet.

    On the other hand, few people had connectivity when I started out, and those that did had dial-up. Those 56K modems were really hot stuff when they first came out.

    Also, Cobol programmers can often find good-paying work because so few people can maintain the systems they manage. I'm already seeing myself sliding into that role. I maintain several internal apps and there's no plan to replace them. Given a few more, and my job will be kind of cushy.
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  31. #31
    Super Moderator jmcilhinney's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Quote Originally Posted by dilettante View Post
    I get an impression you may be running scared, trying to hold on to a past that is slipping away. Don't worry, even Cobol programmers can still find work.
    You seem to consider the present to be the past and the uncertain future to be the present. What's the point of people trying to master new things that aren't guaranteed to be around in future anyway when what we're doing now is here to stay for the foreseeable future? Even if what you talk about as reality does come to pass, there will still be plenty of time for many of us to make any shifts required when it comes to pass, because the things we're doing now aren't going to disappear overnight. The company I work for does most of its work for government and corporate clients who have shown no signs of any interest in moving to the sorts of things you suggest that are essential for our survival. If and when those sorts of clients look likely to move to new platforms will be the time for us to put real effort into supporting them. Until that time, we're just shifting focus from what actually pays the bills. The fact that we're not embracing something as an inevitability does not mean that we're ignoring it or running from it. We just don't need it until we need it and when we actually do need it, then we'll be ready.

  32. #32
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Don't be too sure you know what the thinking is up there in the Executive Suite. As it is, large-scale consulting firms are already struggling to stay relevant in the face of the recents changes in the computing landscape.


    The death of Indian IT services?

    His basic point is that while Indian outsourcers have not "become less capable of servicing Western needs... It is that their customer base — the CIO and IT department — is in decline". Wadhwa points out that customers of Indian IT today are easily able to "download cheap, elegant, and powerful apps on their iPads that make their corporate systems look primitive... They are user customizable and can be built by anyone with basic programming skills".
    That last jab is laughable. I guess if there is something that you can't do yourself then it only requires "basic programming skills."


    HP adapts to new reality of smaller outsourcing deals

    "We're focused of restructuring and on a ton of training for our people, in regards to our offerings, in regards to the way we deliver and even the way we sell, just for the fact that we've got so much smaller deals now," Nefkens told ZDNet at the Barcelona event.
    Smaller deals, or just obsolete skills?


    6 reasons why shadow IT is emerging from the shadows

    Employees just want to do their jobs. There's nothing sinister, underhanded or rebellious about shadow IT. Users use such under-the-radar software simply because they know it and are comfortable with it. And that helps them get their jobs done. In today's hyper-competitive economy, they'll do whatever it takes.
    Yes, the sort of Soviet-style centralized planning you see in shops taken over by the Microsoft faithful is probably over.

  33. #33
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Quote Originally Posted by dilettante View Post
    Don't be too sure you know what the thinking is up there in the Executive Suite. As it is, large-scale consulting firms are already struggling to stay relevant in the face of the recents changes in the computing landscape.
    Don't be too sure that I don't.

    Yes, the sort of Soviet-style centralized planning you see in shops taken over by the Microsoft faithful is probably over.
    I'm not sure what world you live in, but what was described as "shadow IT" has defined my career for the last 16 years. There isn't any kind of Soviet-style centralized planning going on here. Until pretty recently, it has been entirely under-the-radar software that I have been writing and supporting. When those on high (not very high, at that, as we are a very flat organization) decide to do something as far as making a program....well, I think it kind of happened once, and has been a rolling disaster. The software I write comes from the bottom up. Eventually, those on high see it and endorse it, but they almost never initiate it.

    The rank and file people don't fall into any hater camp. They aren't Microsoft faithful or Microsoft bashers, or Apple fans, or Andoidians. We have a few of the latter, but they are only geeks that I work with. The users want software that does what they need and runs on the computer on their desk. They don't want me to tell them about the technology behind it, and they don't care what that is. We could swap out their computers with Macs, Android, Linux, or BeOS and the only thing they would care about is whether or not they could still do the things they needed to get done. If the software I have written for them stopped working because of that change, they'd roast the IT department alive (frankly, the torches are always close at hand, if not already lit, and the firewood has been stockpiled for years). We probably won't be going to Windows 8....ever. We always skip a version, and since we went to 7, there isn't much chance that we'll go to 8. The question will be whether we go to 9. If we have to teach the users something new, the complaints will be loud and frequent. That will largely dictate how rapidly we adopt 9, Android, or anything else. It is a pretty simple equation: If there are dramatic changes, there will be howls of protest. If there is a change that means the existing, internal, software isn't working then there will be flat out rebellion.

    Your world is a fantasy. The real world works on inertia, not the not some geek tragedy.
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  34. #34
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I'm not sure why there is so much emotion in this. You can choose to be part of it or choose not to be. You can flip the coin and go by what comes up or reject it and try again.

    If you can hang back on Windows 7 for a while though it does give you a few more years before you face any change. Just hope when you have to move on the pardigm shift required won't be too much to handle all at once.

    Who can say for certain? Anything could happen. Microsoft might make all sorts of changes down the road a little, from abandoning WinRT/Metro to opening it up for casual application deployment. Either of those could go a long way to defusing any threat from alternative desktop OSs.

  35. #35
    Smooth Moperator techgnome's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Because some of us are quite simply sick and tired of feeling like we have to defend our career choices. It may not be your intentions, but that's how it comes across sometimes. We've made our decisions, we have to live (or die) by it. You made your choice to pursue a given route, we're chose a different path. I'm very happy with my choices. It may not run forever, but I'm sure as heck going to ride it for as long as I can. If and when the times comes for a paradigm shift, I will make the decision THEN which way I want to go. But not at the moment. I have made a very successful career with VB over the years. I pay more in taxes sometimes than some people will make in a year. I started with VB3... moved into Vb4 and 6... rolled right along into .NET... I've been excited about all of the changes to VB along the way, and became as giddy as a school girl when .NET came out... I could have been like a lot a people and pissed and whined and moaned about being tossed under the bus by MS. But I didn't. I took the time to learn VB.NET and C# as it happens... ON MY OWN TIME... not because the company was going to make that change, but because that's where I saw my future. It would be another 4 years before the company got caught up.

    Android is A future. Not THE future. But so is .NET. And even iOS/Mac OS... they are A future, but I don't think any of them are singularly the future. I work with enterprise-level clients. Like Shaggy's users, in the end, they don't really care what it runs on (to some extend they do, but for the most part, they don't) ... To the best of my knowledge we've never lost a sale because we weren't on an Android device. To be fair, our app isn't the kind that's suited for anything like that. At best, the only mobile request we've had actually came from the Execs of our clients for some kind of business dashboard of health to see how things are. In less than two years we went from a thick Windows form-based application to a thin client, webbrowser based application. On the back end we are still very much tied to MS, IIS and SQL Server... but now at least, since the system is web-based, we're no longer tied to Windows desktops, and providing company health dashboards to CEOs anywhere is a snap. All they have to do is pull it up on their iPad. And we were able to enable this "cross-platform" operation w/o sacrificing our own platform or development efforts.

    You're right though, nothing is for certain. That goes for the future of Android as much as it is for any MS technology, or ANY technology for that matter.

    -tg
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  36. #36
    PowerPoster dunfiddlin's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I'm not sure why there is so much emotion in this.
    Coming dangerously close to revealing the troll within, aren't you? Use emotive language, exaggerate the polarity of the discussion, and falsely characterise the responses, then moan about everybody else getting hot under the collar. That's Troll 101! I defy anyone to interpret 'running scared' as an emotionally neutral accusation!

    Microsoft might make all sorts of changes down the road a little
    I don't think there's any question that they will now Balls-Up ... sorry .. Ballmer's on his bike. But, as so many have pointed out, the real world doesn't live in the future, nor indeed in many cases, even in the present. The vast majority of ordinary business users (those not in the minority super-earning bracket) have not the slightest interest in chasing fads. They aim to spend as little on IT as possible. If it ain't broke, they sure as heck aren't gonna fix it. And who can balme them. After all, they're in business to develop and sell their own products not to have an enviable computer network to show off at the next shareholder's meeting in lieu of a profit!
    As the 6-dimensional mathematics professor said to the brain surgeon, "It ain't Rocket Science!"

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  37. #37
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Quote Originally Posted by techgnome View Post
    I have made a very successful career with VB over the years. I pay more in taxes sometimes than some people will make in a year.
    RIGHT! Me too....as long as I'm allowed to compare my taxes to those paid by children, invalids, or possibly dead people.
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  38. #38
    Super Moderator Shaggy Hiker's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    Quote Originally Posted by dilettante View Post
    I'm not sure why there is so much emotion in this. You can choose to be part of it or choose not to be. You can flip the coin and go by what comes up or reject it and try again.
    Actually, I thought all the emotion was on your end. Emotion never really conveys all that well or accurately in written words, so it's hard to be certain. You never struck me as a particularly hysterical type, so I've assumed that the whole point of your posts on this issue started with some bitterness at MS, and is now just idle taunting. I figured you were just saying whatever to get a reaction. I get that you're bitter about .NET, and I get that you're either bitter or buffaloed by Win 8 (I'm still not sure which), but you've been through these things before, too, haven't you? I assumed you were aware that there has been a strong anti-MS sentiment in the tech community for a long time, and that this contingent gloms onto every new piece of technology as the thing that will finally rid them of the evil empire (even if it means selling their souls to another evil empire). This wave will subside, only to be replaced by the next wave. It's the rhythm of nature in the tech world.

    The bottom line is that the coders don't drive the technology nearly as much as the technology drives us. I've now worked in three languages that didn't exist when I was in grad school, and I'd like to think that wasn't very long ago....though....I guess, by now, it was. We are small, self-important, cogs in the wheels that drive business. It's kind of like the engine thinking that it is steering the car because it happens to be providing the means for forward motion.
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  39. #39
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I guess I'll just have to learn from all of your enlightened posts in the wildly popular Metro forum. This may take time, since Win8 has only been in developers' hands for a bit over 2 years now.

  40. #40
    Super Moderator FunkyDexter's Avatar
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    Re: Are Adware Android apps more profitable than Adware Windows Applications/Utilitie

    I'm not sure why there is so much emotion in this
    Because you keep putting it there.

    Just hope when you have to move on the pardigm shift required won't be too much to handle all at once.
    That's the point. If it comes we're confident that it won't be too much to handle... because most of us have lived through both real and imagined pardigm shifts already in our careers. The desktop's dead... apparently. I've been hearing that little nugget from web developers for about twenty years since the interweb started taking off and yet, when my last contract finished and I needed to find more work, I managed to find a desktop orientated position within a fortnight.

    I was also smart enough to see that web development was likely to be a growing market so I started brushing up my web development skills. They've been creeping into my skill set at a moderate and manageable rate for all of those twenty years and, while I still see myself as primarily a desktop developer, I'm absolutely confident in putting myself forward for web roles.

    I am also smart enough to see that "app" development is likely to be a growing market so I'm starting to give a bit of time to picking up some skills in that field. Not much time, mind, because I have no idea what direction that's going to head in yet or what the best languages and plaforms for me to learn are. As that become clearer I'll start to give it a bit more time.

    I don't feel rushed. Your assumption seems to be that a new technology immediately replaces it's predecessor, descending like some Sword of Damocles to condemn those of us who weren't fortunate enough to predict it to a life of poverty and homelessness. That's not what happens. A new technology can see a very rapid adoption if it catches the right zeitgeist (probably spelled that wrong) but the old technology does not experience the same rate of decline. It hangs around for years giving all us shortsighted fools plenty of time to start adopting the new tech and trying it out. It's like an old Grandpa who may get increasingly doddery on his pins but can still dish out the Werthers Original when we pay him a visit. Oh sure, young Auntie Android might be all cool with her trendy clothes and biker boyfreind and she may take us to see rock concerts but we all know she's stingy with the cash in the card at christmas whereas Gramps has always been more than generous.

    Erm... I forgot where I was going with that metaphor... I think the point was that there's be plenty of time to mooch some cash out of Aunty Android later, once she's a bit more mature, but for now Gramps is where it's at.

    Anyway, in summary, stop calling our Grampy names. You've been doing it for several years now and it's getting boring. Also it makes you look silly... because alot of us are getting more cash in our christmas cards from Gramps than you do from Auntie Android.
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