I'm also an app developer myself. Some suggestions:
Price: use 7.99, people will still read 7, it's hard to believe but yes, they can't be bothered to read or remember 3 digits. Careful with 8+ though, some will read "10". Apply some discounts periodically to see how people react to different pricing points.
To reduce Google's cut you can use taxes in google checkout (google's 30% doesn't apply to the taxes).
Permissions: why are you discovering accounts, using the authentication credentials, etc etc etc?? some people are going to decide not to download you app because of this. Fortunately for you, most don't care about privacy, permissions or anything at all, but I wouldn't install your app myself, for example. You're requesting lots of permissions and to me it seems that a kanji writing app could do without them.
I don't see the market licensing permission, by the way. You're still in time to add protection, which is CRITICAL. I can't stress this enough. Your app WILL be cracked and distributed online if protection is weak or non-existent. And given your price point, I'd say most working copies of your app will be pirated. Some people will say hey, it's no use, it's going to be cracked anyway!. Sorry but no, it doesn't have to be that way. If protection is good it might get cracked after some months, and then maybe only for rooted devices. Check out this Google IO talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnSNCXR9fbY and this android developer blog article http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/09/securing-andr...
There is an automated app cracker around http://androidcracking.blogspot.com/p/antilvl.html , try it on your app when you implement LVL to make sure it doesn't work. There's also some nasty stuff called LuckyPatcher that patches the odex files dierctly on rooted phones (so it can modify your code even if you verify your dex file's checksum and your signature etc); it doesn't work on all apps either.
Thanks for the information about adding protection. I wasn't sure how much use it would be, but if it actually works I guess it's good to add it. I'll definitely look into those links.
I'll definitely experiment some with the pricing as well.
The account permissions are needed since it uses a SyncAdapter to sync the progress data between multiple devices, so if you have both a phone and a tablet you can sync your progress between them. The sync functionality is also used to fetch updates to the word list when I correct some translations etc on the server side. Unfortunately, there's no way to use the Android sync functionality without also setting up an account (as far as I could see), and I didn't want to implement all that by myself.
Ah, I see... well I'd try to remove any permissions you can and explain somewhere in the description that the permissions are for syncing.
Also, buy your app and give it 5 stars, so people can see a rating.
I've been looking for other japanese learning apps in the market, they don't seem to be doing very well. I hope you do well but maybe you won't be able to get paid enough for all the effort you've put making the app.
These are my opinions I could be totally wrong of course.
There is one Japanese learning app that does rather well called Human Japanese. At least it has sold 5000-10000 copies with a current price at $9. It's not spectacular, but for me reaching similar figures would be a success.
Comments
I'm also an app developer myself. Some suggestions: Price: use 7.99, people will still read 7, it's hard to believe but yes, they can't be bothered to read or remember 3 digits. Careful with 8+ though, some will read "10". Apply some discounts periodically to see how people react to different pricing points. To reduce Google's cut you can use taxes in google checkout (google's 30% doesn't apply to the taxes). Permissions: why are you discovering accounts, using the authentication credentials, etc etc etc?? some people are going to decide not to download you app because of this. Fortunately for you, most don't care about privacy, permissions or anything at all, but I wouldn't install your app myself, for example. You're requesting lots of permissions and to me it seems that a kanji writing app could do without them.
I don't see the market licensing permission, by the way. You're still in time to add protection, which is CRITICAL. I can't stress this enough. Your app WILL be cracked and distributed online if protection is weak or non-existent. And given your price point, I'd say most working copies of your app will be pirated. Some people will say hey, it's no use, it's going to be cracked anyway!. Sorry but no, it doesn't have to be that way. If protection is good it might get cracked after some months, and then maybe only for rooted devices. Check out this Google IO talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnSNCXR9fbY and this android developer blog article http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/09/securing-andr... There is an automated app cracker around http://androidcracking.blogspot.com/p/antilvl.html , try it on your app when you implement LVL to make sure it doesn't work. There's also some nasty stuff called LuckyPatcher that patches the odex files dierctly on rooted phones (so it can modify your code even if you verify your dex file's checksum and your signature etc); it doesn't work on all apps either.
Thanks for the information about adding protection. I wasn't sure how much use it would be, but if it actually works I guess it's good to add it. I'll definitely look into those links.
I'll definitely experiment some with the pricing as well.
The account permissions are needed since it uses a SyncAdapter to sync the progress data between multiple devices, so if you have both a phone and a tablet you can sync your progress between them. The sync functionality is also used to fetch updates to the word list when I correct some translations etc on the server side. Unfortunately, there's no way to use the Android sync functionality without also setting up an account (as far as I could see), and I didn't want to implement all that by myself.
Ah, I see... well I'd try to remove any permissions you can and explain somewhere in the description that the permissions are for syncing. Also, buy your app and give it 5 stars, so people can see a rating.
I've been looking for other japanese learning apps in the market, they don't seem to be doing very well. I hope you do well but maybe you won't be able to get paid enough for all the effort you've put making the app.
These are my opinions I could be totally wrong of course.
There is one Japanese learning app that does rather well called Human Japanese. At least it has sold 5000-10000 copies with a current price at $9. It's not spectacular, but for me reaching similar figures would be a success.