No Allstays for Android anymore?

[booster]

I have a few year old Allstays on my phone, but we went to put it on DW's new phone and now it appears to be iphone only.



Bummer.


Any new and exciting replacements?

[Winston]

Interesting . . .

We have Allstays Camp & Tent on one of our android phones and was considering adding it to another but apparently some back-alley shenanigans now limits this app to i-thingies as you discovered.

We have, however, had good luck accessing Allstays through their website/browser on our non-Camp&Tent android.

[mumkin]

Seems that they are cutting off their nose to spite their face?

[booster]

Originally Posted by mumkin

Seems that they are cutting off their nose to spite their face?

I think Apple gave them some kind of sweet deal to be the exclusive App source for Allstays, at least that is the way it looks.


The other possibility, or that might just be contributing, is that it allows them to drive business to Allstays Pro off the website. It does have more capability, but at $30+ per year, certainly isn't inexpensive.

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by mumkin

Seems that they are cutting off their nose to spite their face?

Not they. He. Allstays appears to be owned and operated by a nice guy named Adam Longfellow. I had discourse with him a few months ago when we were trying to hack our Garmin. I really, really, really want my Garmin to show Allstays content. I drive solo across the country and I cannot pull my Allstays app every time I need to find something, and I don't have a navigator in the passenger seat to do it for me. I need all that helpful stuff automatically fed into the 7 inch Garmin screen that's right in front of me - not the useless crap that Garmin feeds instead (Shell gas stations and car repair shop icons is mostly what I've got polluting that screen - ugh, I hate it because it's worse than nothing at all).

Right now there's no way to do that. My husband could hack the Garmin to make it happen, but it would take more free time than we are willing to spend.

Anyway, the upshot is that I've strongly encouraged Adam to pursue that line of business. He needs a deal with Garmin - what I described above would sell like hotcakes. He might be contracting some of his service areas in order to focus more intensively on others. I can only hope.

[Knit]

Maybe it’s economics - it costs money to support multiple platforms and iOS has more users.

[MobileCabin]

Originally Posted by Knit

Maybe it’s economics - it costs money to support multiple platforms and iOS has more users.

But it looks like they are essentially going after only half the US mobile market:

http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-...tes-of-america

[tooTallforB?]

Originally Posted by MobileCabin

But it looks like they are essentially going after only half the US mobile market:

Mobile Operating System Market Share United States Of America | StatCounter Global Stats

This chart is a bit misleading, as Android has a lot more "fragmentation" than iOS: this means a lot of Android devices are stuck on a specific Android version (often very far behind the current one) and can't be updated. As an app developer (specially if you don't have a lot of resources) it becomes hell very fast trying to cover the whole market and handle the specificities of each version and testing them.

In that regard iOS is doing a bit better as most devices can be carried forward in the newest versions for several years, adding to that there is a very limited number of devices to deal with compared to the much wider Android ecosystem.

It is one reason some developers decide to focus on iOS if they have to make a choice. Another common reason is that people tend to spend more per device on the Apple app store than on Android, not sure if this is a factor here.

It is unfortunate that this results in less choice for everybody, but unless you're a somewhat sizable outfit, developing for both ecosystems is pretty taxing.

Here is a chart (from 2/1 showing the different versions of Android. If you just focus on the latest versions (here 6,7, 8 and 8.1) that's about 60% of the installed base. Meaning 30% of the total market, and you still have to deal with a lot of variations:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...th-android-os/

[Mfturner]

We carry an iPad along with our Android phones just to have access to both sets of apps.

[Knit]

MobileCabin

What I was trying to say was that perhaps the developer looked at how many users they had on both platforms and found that there were more iOS users than Android users. Earlier posters made it sound like a conspiracy against Android. I was just suggesting there might be a valid business reason.

[MobileCabin]

Originally Posted by Knit

MobileCabin

What I was trying to say was that perhaps the developer looked at how many users they had on both platforms and found that there were more iOS users than Android users. Earlier posters made it sound like a conspiracy against Android. I was just suggesting there might be a valid business reason.

That is probably the reason. I find that I really use it for planning and that involves a computer so I have a larger screen and printer. Many of the people that I know who use ios no longer (if ever) have a computer. It would make sense that they would be heavy app users. For me, it took awhile to even notice the reduction of info on my android app when compared to info on the pc since the app version is not that important in my planning. Google maps is my go-to app when on the road.

[BBQ]

.

Many people who use an Android phone
also like to use Apple iPad.

There are no good Android tablets;
My family had a few Samsungs over the years, they all died prematurely.
It is iPad for us; it is a far superior product than anything on the market.

We are covered.

[booster]

Originally Posted by BBQ

.

Many people who use an Android phone
also like to use Apple iPad.

There are no good Android tablets;
My family had a few Samsungs over the years, they all died prematurely.
It is iPad for us; it is a far superior product than anything on the market.

We are covered.

Interesting, DW has a 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab that we use for our hotspot when traveling, and she spends many hours a day on it. I think it is over 5 years old at this point.

[skagitstan]

Originally Posted by BBQ

.

Many people who use an Android phone
also like to use Apple iPad.

There are no good Android tablets;
My family had a few Samsungs over the years, they all died prematurely.
It is iPad for us; it is a far superior product than anything on the market.

We are covered.

A bit excessively broad.
We have 2 Pixel-C's, 2 Samsungs.
They all work fine, except for the Samsung with cracked glass from when I dropped in on concrete.
It's true that Google is moving away from tablet support, now that Chromebooks will run just about any Android app.

[davedutah]

Nonsense. Anti-android FUD.

For a simple app like this, all the dev needs to do is select an old minimum API level to support, like 4.1 (Jellybean) and you get over 90% of the market.

Unless you are doing something crazy with the new notification capabilities, or some other new feature, there's really no need to target the newer versions.

[DWorrell3]

Odd that Android Allstays appears not to work. I have a Samsung S8 and it does just fine. It's a little glitchy to start. After the map appears you have to cut the screen off and on to make the map appear, then it's fine from there. As to working only with IOS, I find that odd. Android has 88% of the total market, Apple 11.9%. Granted, the Android world is a lot more scattered, still, it's a huge market. Wonder what's going on? Dave W

[MaxCapacity]

I believe Google restructured their costs for apps and it became too prohibitive to continue on Android.
If you have a larger phone you can work with the web version, which he recommends using anyway, as it has much more information on it than the app, as it can he can update the website at anytime, but changes to the app data take longer.

[davedutah]

In worldwide market share, android is more dominant. In the US market, though, it is more even. It's more like 60/40 in favor of android over ios. However, more ios users are engaged in accessing the internet and downloading app--especially those that cost money.

However, android is still a huge market to give up. Especially for simple apps like Allstays where the devs could write for both platforms at once using one of the multiple frameworks available for that purpose (Cordova, PhoneGap, Weex, etc.).

[Bruceper]

Originally Posted by MaxCapacity

I believe Google restructured their costs for apps and it became too prohibitive to continue on Android.

Google charges a single, flat $25 fee to put an app on the play store.

Apple charges a $99 per year fee to put an app on the app store.

As stated, this is all Android FUD (god I love that term! thank you davedutah for using it).

Simply stated, the developer found his market with apple user and abandoned the less profitable play store.

[Knit]

If you go to https://www.allstays.com/apps/camprv.htm and scroll way down to change log then Android you can read why the developer dropped Android. No FUD noted.

Here’s the first part of it. IMG_0347.jpg