Emily Cummins, 21 year old student designs fridge suitable for africa powered by the sun!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1108343/Amazing-solar-powered-fridge-invented-British-student-potting-shed-helps-poverty-stricken-Africans.html

http://www.emilycummins.co.uk/

I came across a green design festival in Athens a few days ago whilst I was there.

There were some nice ideas. Lamps made of Folders. Chairs made of bottle tops. Water trees for plants. 

And some interesting photography and commentary. For instance there was a pic of Singapore - and it made the point that cities are "green" because resources are concentrated etc. 

http://www.greendesignfestival.gr/ 

Shame i didn't get any pictures. 

Last month I release an app in Andoid Market, iOS AppStore and Amazon AppStore. Here are some observation which might help you guys:

App Development

I would say, it's fun! Every platform provides nice tools and SDK. iOS SDK provides faster iteration, emulator loads up in flash and debug is quite neat. On the other hand, Android debug is also not so bad but not trivial. The only thing i hate about android is it's bulky emulator, I wonder why they don't have minimal images that loads faster.

App Testing

Android is open so your apk file works anywhere, it's easy to just attach and send or place it on your own webserver. iOS provisional portal require device certificate and a special certificate to sign app, which of course is not trival but not very hard to get it right.

Deployment (AppStore/Market)

If you have neccessary graphics then you can publish your android app in 10 mins. It may take 30 mins to appear in search. iOS makes this process different, they review every app. Make sure you have tested your app extreamly well before submitting to AppStore, first rejection is in allmost 40% of cases, get in contact with Apple Developer. Luckly for me, App got approved in first time and it took 5 days. You may also submit your android app to Amazon AppStore, developer program is for free but it's already 14 days and app is still under review. They have got Apple like AppStore and review process but I guess they are not able to match the demand as of today.

Sales

Android version of my app was released 3 weeks ago and till now, I have around 100 users using it while iOS version was released 4 days ago and I have around 500 users using it. The difference is huge and since there are more Android handset in this world than iOS, first I couldn't understand. But later I noticed that my app is kinda lost in market (Google does take 30% of revenue just like Apple). But Apple promotes app very well, we got head starts and Apple automatically adjust ranking at all, while there are so many junk apps on Android, your app is kinda lost so make sure you put some marketing effort promoting your android version of app.

Revenue

My app has got in-app purchase to unlock additional functionality. It was surprise to see I couldn't sell even one unit on Android as of today while I sold around 20 units on iOS version in last 4 days. That's surprising but they way android was made, people are not willing to pay for a good program instead they look for free alternatives, which as a developer discourage you to consider Android as your business platform. Probably, ads are better way to earn from your Android development.

Updates

Adding new updates is quite simple in Market as there is no review but iOS is very annoying here, your new update have to be reviewed and if it's critical update then try contacting Apple to review ASAP.

Summary

I am very pleased with iOS AppStore, the way they rank and promote apps. Also, Apple community which is willing to pay for good piece of software. On the other hand, Android Market non-review structure is cool but your app is kinda lost and it require some marketing efforts.

BTW Here are links

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.fagbokforlaget.sightwordsnapperpro&feature;=more_from_developer

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sight-word-snapper/id471601860?mt=8

14/09/2011 London