Making Money With Android

AIDE – Develop Android Apps on Android

Android Java IDE (mobile Eclipse)

There has been an explosion of mobile applications in recent times, coinciding with the expansion and app developers in the digital marketplace. As a result, companies of all sizes, in all industries and in every country have begun to appreciate how mobile applications can increase engagement with their customers. These efforts allow them to market their products in a way which relates to the modern consumer

During the past month or so, I’ve been testing a number of different apps on my Asus Transformer Prime tablet. The landscape form factor, coupled with a built-in keyboard make the Transformer a very different beast to most other Android devices.

While I’ve found the device great for gaming, basic productivity and email applications, I still needed my desktop for one important task – developing Android apps. Eclipse doesn’t run on Android, and for a long time there was no suitable Java IDE which could compile Android apps natively on the ARM architecture.

Along comes AIDE.

Improvements to the Android Developer Console

A few days ago (before the Android Market was renamed) Google announced a major update to the Android Developer Console stats page. Rather than the simple “active installs” chart which used to be shown, developers now have access to a wide range of charts showing total & active installs over time. Google has also added the ability to view daily install charts, and see which version of your app users have installed at the present time.

Google Play – The New Android Market

Today Google announced (in several places) that the Android Market is being rebranded “Google Play”

The new marketplace (sorry, “play store”) includes content from four main areas – Movies, Music, Apps & Games, and Books. Of course, not all of these are available outside of the US yet, so folks in Australia will only get access to Apps & Games and Books for now.

Received My First Payment From LeadBolt

A few people have asked whether LeadBolt is a reliable advertising network, and how quickly developers are paid. I’ve been using the network for a few months now, with very good results. Using the new app wall format, I’ve been getting an eCPM of $1.86. Here’s my first payment notification from December last year. Yes, … Read more

Android Developers on Google+

This morning Google announced a brand new Google+ page for Android Developers. The goal is to create “a place for Android developers everywhere to meet, share, and connect with the people behind the Android developer experience”. The Android Developer Relations team will be hosting Google+ Hangouts from this page, and even calling in some external developers … Read more

Android Income Report #7 (October)

When I started this blog, I set myself a goal: to make $1000 from Android development in a single month. This seemed a lofty goal – especially starting from scratch – but I thought it would be achievable within a couple of years. Thus it was quite a surprise in July when I got nearly halfway there – $690 in a single month. This was just 4 months after my first income report of less than $4!

Even more surprising – and exciting – is the news that this month, I passed the $1000 mark. Yes, after 7 months of Android development I’ve actually reached the goal set back in March. This was mainly due to the phenomenal success of my latest app – “Fake iPhone 4S“.

Read on for more details, including the full story of how one weekend’s work turned into my most successful app yet.

SOPA Blackout Today

January 18th is SOPA Blackout Day. I’ll be participating in this endeavour – anyone visiting the blog today will be presented with a black overlay and a link explaining why the SOPA legislation is so dangerous to the internet as we know it today. For those who aren’t aware, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is … Read more

Received My First Payment From Madvertise

This month I received my first publisher payment from Madvertise. I started using this advertising network in October, and have had some fantastic results so far. Madvertise only works well in Europe (fill rates are very low in the rest of the world), but for European traffic it can return very good revenues. During October … Read more

Happy Christmas!

Christmas greetings to all my Android friends! Here’s wishing you a happy & holy Christmas, and a productive new year in 2012.

Over 700,000 Android Devices Activated Per Day

Andy Rubin just posted the latest Android goodness on Google+. Apparently there are now over 700,000 Android devices activated per day around the world. And that’s not counting upgrades.

The full message, posted in two parts on Andy’s Google+ profile:

There are now over 700,000 Android devices activated every day

…and for those wondering, we count each device only once (ie, we don’t count re-sold devices), and “activations” means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service.

Read more