Piracy has become rampant within the Android ecosystem.  In the case of my own apps, I was appalled to see piracy rates hit as high as 90%.  I interpreted this as "lost sales", and spent a considerable amount of time trying to turn pirates into patrons with Automatic Application Licensing. This licensing technology is now included in my own apps and a growing number of other applications being sold on the Android market.  The ultimate effect on sales remains to be seen, but so far things are looking good.

Digital piracy is nothing new.  It has been around since the commercial sale of digital goods began.  But what is driving software theft to the epic levels that it is reaching on the Android platform?  There are several key contributors to this perfect storm of application piracy that has engulfed Android...

Promoting a mobile application is not easy.  It's getting more difficult every day as the market gets flooded with new apps, the majority of which are crap.  It's very, very easy to get lost in the market noise.

The basic pattern that most of us follow in releasing a commercial application looks something like this:

1. Create a "Lite" version of an application.  Release to market, promote, get reviewed, tweak, improve, develop strong and loyal user base.
2. At some point in the future, release a "Professional" version of the application and charge for it.  Add compelling features not available in Lite version, and make it easy to upgrade for existing user base.

Let me get right to the point.  Apple and Google are already the two dominate players in the consumer electronics space.  That may be a bold statement, but I don't think that it's to far off.  Many are expecting Android to hold the #2 spot in mobile operating system deployments by 2012.  Most analysts throw Symbian and RIM into the mix based on current market conditions, but I think that things are going to change very rapidly over the next year.

My Flurry stats for Screebl are reporting as of late yesterday that users of the Google Nexus One devices are downloading, installing, and using Screebl (see here for information on Screebl, my app that keeps the phone screen on based on orientation). Curious to see how many users I get, and if there are any error reports on the new hardware...

I've been browsing my Flurry stats for Screebl lately (an app that controls power-saving features based on orientation), and have noticed some interesting things.  One was the recent arrival of the Google Nexus One (or the "GPhone") as a user of Screebl.  That's exciting.

But I also recently noticed an entry for two different models of Blackberry.  What?  Has someone hacked android onto a RIM device, or is there a BlandroBerry in the works?

Now that ADC2 is over and Screebl has been polished up for the most part, with the most often requested features added and most of the biggest defects squashed, the question remains:  what to do with Screebl now?

I'm currently shopping Screebl to a number of manufacturers, trying to get the technology behind Screebl bundled with core mobile distributions.  Things are at a very early stage, but there is some interest from a few fronts.  There are a number of reasons that integrating Screebl with the core platform would make sense.

Writing good software is tough.  I know that.  It took me months of after-hours development just to get a simple little Android utility completed that controls a phone's power-saving features using the orientation of the device (see this link for information about Screebl).

I just downloaded the new Google Maps that includes navigation control.  Google maps has a long way to go to get this application ready for prime time.  They're not kidding when they warn you that the application is in beta, and you should use caution when following the provided directions.  See the screen capture below for an example.  Whatever you do, don't blindly follow the blue line!

It seems that there are several applications on the Android market right now that make an attempt to solve the problem of premature screen locking.  This is good news!  First of all, it validates the problem space in which Screebl lives as actually being a need.  Second, there's nothing like a good healthy competition to make software better.  I've evaluated all of the available Android applications that deal with screen locking, and I must say that I'm very happy with how Screebl has turned out.  In my mind, Screebl is hands down the best of the bunch, from polish, to intuitive out-of-the-box bang-for-the-buck.  I admit that I may not be all that impartial.  But hey, I'm feeling confident, particularly after reading the comments on the competition that mention Screebl!