Android Market handling fee

Hi gang,

Today, I realized that the Android Market charges a handling fee of about 30% of the app price. Since most apps carry ridiculously low price tags, this is a large piece of a tiny cake.

In addition to market launch, an own website with PayPal check out might increase net income.

Any opinions?

Maybe you can sell a bundle of several related applications.

Hallo Robert,

The problem is that one's own homepage is not visited by as many people as the Android Market.
The 30% that Google collects is quite a lot!

das problem ist dass die eigene Homepage nicht von so viele Leute besucht wird wie der Android market.
Die 30% die Google kassiert ist ganz schön viel!

Ciao,
Filippo

Filippo hit the nail. Your own site, and I would put in that group Amazon and other 3rd party sites, will not get the traffic like the android market. Sure you will get the techies that will visit those sites but the numbers are not close to what the market has. 30% is high but until there is a viable alternative, Google is able to charge that amount.

I haven't started to port my app to the iPhone yet but I believe Apple charges similar amount.

I do agree with both of you. Inspite of several third party markets (suspicious sources included),
the access hits on the official Android market is enormous, both mobile and website.
The one who holds kinda monopoly can dictate any terms.

Thanks a lot for your thoughts, guys.

You could have a free version of your app on Android market, with a link in the app to your own site to purchase the full version

I believe Apple charges about the same amount, but as Filippo and others said, the Android Store and the Apple Store get a lot more traffic than one's own homepage. I'd rather have 70% of 100 sales via their stores than 100 % of let's say 5 or 6 sales via my own web site. The only thing I don't like as much is the $25 to register as a seller. For posting a free app or a cheap one you are actually losing money unless you have other apps to recover than money from.
I saw another store, SlideME | Android Community and Application Marketplace which I believe does not charge a registration fee, have any of you had any experience with them?