[amsat-bb] Re: Please make available for Kindle as wel.

[Gregg Wonderly]

One of the most interesting and perhaps frustrating thing about the Android 
platform is this "my store", "your store", "no store" interplay between all the 
vendors who have created devices using the "open source" Android platform from 
Google.  With Google producing devices as well, their ownership of the "Google 
Play" store, and demand for "paid entry" into that marketplace, their 
competitors, Amazon and B&N etc., are reluctant to "play together".

So, developers are strung out, being forced to participate in multiple 
economies, which doesn't scale very well for small operations like you'll find 
in HAM radio software teams.  Walmart had a $99 or so deal on a Chinese tablet 
over Christmas.  That tablet had "no store" available to the purchasers to start 
with.  The only choice was to install the Amazon store and be locked into that 
economy.  There is, always the opportunity to root these devices and spend the 
time and energy to manage the whole thing yourself.  But, without a "Store" 
application, you're limited to what you can get, based on what developers are 
willing to "give away."

In this day and age, I think we are past the time of "free software".  I think 
it is important to understand how that diminishes the worth of people doing good 
things for HAM radio, to have such expectations.

Certainly, many people have limited incomes, so I understand that to be natural 
pressure on the scale of the software economy in HAM radio, overall.

In the end, open source is a great thing, when people have time to give away, or 
are using the same software to make money elsewhere.  But, all of these vertical 
market applications for HAM radio have some very focused uses, and not very many 
of them are gold mines in the public markets.

Gregg Wonderly

On 1/16/2013 2:37 AM, David Johnson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We will do our best but we cannot target every platform specifically.
>
> I already build for four google devices. Nexus 1,S,7 & 10.
>
> The kindle fire and Barnes and Noble devices have to be side loaded and we
> would have to set up a download site and PayPal payment mechanism for the
> paid version.
>
> 73
>
> Dave
>
> Since us Kindle users can not directly access the Google Play site, please
> consider making the apps available to us Kindle Fire and Fire HD users.  I
> like the functionality and am looking forward to the new features.****
>
> ** **
>
> *Tom Schuessler*
>
> *2713 Lake Gardens Drive*
>
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>
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>
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>
> *n5hyp at arrl.net*
>
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