Popular Android Apps
The top android application a few months ago should give a very plain message to developers – Namco’s PacMan (yes, the classic arcade game) was the top Android download.
Although android smartphones can be powerful web browsers and business tools, many users like to utilize them for gaming as much as anything else, so free games that collect customer data, promote your brand or give customers access to products for purchase are popular development solutions.
MySpace mobile is another highly popular android app, as is the Weather Channel. But what about non-proprietary kinds of apps, the kinds you can develop to promote your business?
Look at the Free Dictionary, another highly popular download, and consider what other similar services customers might like. Translation dictionaries and phrase translators are extremely useful and popular, for example. Provide G1 customers a quick service they can’t get somewhere else, or they can get better from you.
A version of the horoscope might be a winner, as the Daily Horoscope app is one of the top downloads for android, as is Ringdroid, that gives you the ability to create your own telephone ringtones.
Wallpaper and background programs are highly popular, as are shopping programs like Compare Everywhere and ShopSavvy. Both allow you to use your phone as a barcode scanner, searching online and comparing local prices.
Games are the top download for all smartphones, android or Apple, and a version of a popular game or a new, “addictive” game may be just the development project for your business.
Popular downloads besides PacMan include solitaire versions, slide puzzles (easy to incorporate your logo and an addictive style of game), poker in various varieties, snake, puzzles and brain teasers, trivia, tic tac toe and chess.
Providing cool features and moves for your customized android game with win you downloads, revenue and potential customers.
For example, some of the chess games allow players to choose landscape or portrait orientation and to make moves using a trackball, the keyboard or the touchscreen. One game will take note of the piece you have selected and then highlight all possible moves by that piece, allowing the player to strategize. One will allow a reversal of several moves, so the player can go back and correct a mistake or poor move as well.
Innovative ideas will win recognition in this burgeoning market, where there are hundreds of thousands of downloads to G1 smartphones each day. For a platform that only opened in late October of 2008, the android app market is a huge one with lots of potential for any business.
