Time for a new assignment for our advisory board! Today I want to hear what you have to say about Android. Let me start by laying out the pros and cons as I see them.
PROS
- It’s Google. Google = Success in the technology market right now which bodes well for the device.
- It’s a pretty nice OS from a user perspective. Nice UI. Decent look.
- It might be the “other phone” along with the iPhone.
CONS
- Every OEM can tweak the UI meaning an potentially nightmarish (and expensive) development environment.
- They aren’t as big of a market as the media makes them out to be. (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10366193-94.html)
- Questionable support of applications: (http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/08/31/android.app.sales.low/) which may stem from the fact that Google is a app developer making everyone else a competitor.
- It isn’t clear that Android Users are Application Purchasers (http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/08/27/admob.july.2009/ ) (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/31/top-developer-reveals-android-markets-meager-sales/)
So – can you support or contradict the pros and cons? Do you have other pros and cons you’d want to add? How about personal experience with folks who have switched to or abandoned Android? As I’ve said, this is a platform we have not ruled out but I’d love to hear your opinion!
And as a extra motivation, if you post a response with your opinions TODAY you’ll be entered into a drawing for a special prize!
Twitter
I love E-wallet and am about to migrate from the Palm evironment to Android on the Verizon Droid. Please please please create a version for the droid.
Just purchased a Motorola Droid, and it really rocks. I have ten colleagues in my office who have done likewise. I would love eWallet on the Droid but, if not, I’ll move to a different product.
I’ve been an eWallet user for years and I really like the program. However, my new mobile platform (Android) trumps the eWallet software because password software is only used occasionally, whereas Android is so useful in other ways that I cannot be without my phone. If eWallet is not available on Android, I will have to find a replacement application that does run on Android.
I wish that you had Listpro and Ewallet for the Android platform. Love my Droid and plan to keep it. Stayed with MS Mobile JUST to use the Listpro and Ewallet programs but had sync problems all the time. I’m sure it was MS not Ilium’s trouble. Please make an Android platform very soon or I will be forced to go with another one of the competitors.
Thanks for your time,
Nancy
I as thousands others bought a Motorola Droid since it’s release last Friday. It’s truly a competitor. Only over the weekend the number of apps that have come out is crazy… I can’t imagine there was as much prior to the recent slew of android smartphones that recently came out. There’s also news of many more android phones coming out before years end. News of a drop in Iphone’s price for the holidays is a good sign that these are worthy competitors. Please make an android version of ewallet. I use it everyday on my laptop and really want it on my Droid. If you guys can’t deliver or choose otherwise I may have to switch to a different product.
I have invested in a couple of versions of e-Wallet and ListPro in the Windows Mobile market place. I am waiting on the delivery of a HTC Hero with Android. If you don’t take advantage of this new platform you will miss a market opportunity and have a lot of disappointed customers. (Also include a migration path for the data files
)!
Business is what drove me to change to the DROID phone. We Verizon users (ATT does not have the coverage in our area needed to sustain business … been down that road before) need a phone that has possibilites for promoting more business. The DROID is that phone. I’ve been a Windows Mobile user for years and BB before that. I am here to say, after using the DROID since the 6th, I’ll never go back to them. I use eWallet hard and promote it verbally as much as I can (to help support the developers) and absolutely need it for the DROID. It IS the next iPhone and more. As far as cons, most of those claims are completely unjustified. The only way the market gets bigger is if everyone supports it. Time to take a stand for what is better. And lets face it, if you think Google is going to back down, you’ll lose miserably. As far as application purchasers are concerned, it is unfair to judge previous Android phones against the DROID. It’s night and day. The same could be said for the iPhone … everyone thought that was going to be just another iPod. Look at it now. This is the next level, time to get it there.
There are really two markets here.
The first consists of existing eWallet users who are migrating to the Android platform. Most of the people posting here are in that category. I think that it is clear that (a) we want support on this platform and (b) we are willing to purchase a product. The only thing that has stopped me from buying a Droid to date is the lack of eWallet support. I don’t want to drop eWallet but I will if I have too and I suspect that I’ll be picking up a Droid in the next couple of weeks.
The other market consists of Android users who are not currently eWallet users. There is an opportunity here to develop the must-have application for the Android and I’m not sure that you should pass up that opportunity. Of course, I’m not privy to strategy at Ilium, but I don’t think that you can ignore — for the reasons cited above — this market.
And sign me up to beta test whatever you deliver because I’ll be aching to get eWallet back on my Droid!
I think the fact that the OS and SDK is free, cause lots of people to expect the applications to be free too.
And although there are some pretty good free applications from the market that I currently use, I am appalled by the long list of check-list/to-do applications that totally don’t do what ListPro gave me on my Windows Mobile PDA. If an application with the quality and stability of ListPro became available, I would certainly pay for it like I did for the WM version.
I am currently even in a mind to starting something basic myself, to provide the bare functionality I use in ListPro, like hierarchy, multi-column and check-box functionality.
I have used eWallet on the Palm platform and the WinMobile platform. I recently switched to Android. There is no competition for eWallet. Assessing Android in it’s infancy will short change the potential market. I hope you develop eWallet (and other programs you have) for the Android platform. Some assess Android’s potential as very positive (i.e., http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/10/09/android_2012_gartner/). User response so far now that more that just G-1 is available is very positive.
I also just converted phones over to a Motorola Droid (Android 2.0), and would definitely like to see eWallet and ListPro there. While there are free apps that I’ll guess I’ll play with, but I was really quite happy with the security and so forth of the from Ilium, would be more than willing to pay for applications (already have done so, like also to have things sync with the PC). I switched to Droid because it is so vastly superior technically to the Windows Mobile phones available. And I’m going to also point out that Wallet Pro (Rhombus Software, about 2 euro) is already ported. So the competition is definitely headed there.
yet one more person here who used List Pro (on a Palm device) and upgraded to a Droid. I would LOVE to see a version for the Android OS, and would gladly pay for it again. If one isn’t forthcoming, I’ll have to find a competitor.
Yes! Do it!
We will be many a big Android market! Make ListPro happen!!
Thanks,
Skeet
Android is going mainstream, it isn’t going to be limited to a small volume (Global cell phone market wise) of smart devices.
It is going to be produced, marketed and manufactured by multiple manufacturers and carriers, not the model that iPhone has until this point been sold on.
Lower tier devices will have android, it’s already beginning and will continue into 2010/11. That’s the beauty of the platform it’s so adapatable even budget/ low cost phones could ship with Android.
Please consider this in your development plans,
Mark
Like almost everyone else posting, I am a long time user of eWallet and ListPro on my old Dell Axim X5 pocketpc. I have had my Samsung Galaxy android phone for 2 weeks now and the only piece missing from my app jigsaw is eWallet. I am prepared to hang on for it for a little while, but will move away if nothing is forthcoming. I have lots of stuff in my eWallet database that I really don’t want to type in all over again to a new app. And I certainly want to keep the sync to pc functionality. But I will move if Ilium don’t support Android.
I have purchased several apps already (Co-Pilot, Road Sync), and am happy to buy others (probably Documents To Go at least). Yes there is lots for free on Android Market, as there is on iPhone, but not all by a long way.
It isn’t a matter of IF Android is a success, it IS already. Lots of momentum for a platform that is flexible (change batteries, add memory, bluetooth, GPS etc) is the reason why probably all of us have bought into it. The train is accelerating out of the station, we all want Ilium on board. JUMP onboard before it is too late!
YES eWallet and ListPro for Android please!
Jonathan
One of your cons listed is that each vendor can tweak the UI. This may be true, but I believe that if you use the Android 2.0 SDK, you will mitigate much of the UI issues. It may be too bad for the G1 users, but the Droid market is far larger.
eWallet has been the best password storage software for my Windows Mobile phone and the only “Oh, Dang.” thought I had after buying the Droid was “Oh, Dang.. I forgot about eWallet.”
As many have indicated here, I would gladly pay for it as well.
I have been an ewallet user for some time on Palm Treo OS and have recently switched to Android Droid phone over the Palm Pre. I would like to use eWallet for Android, but if I if nothing is available soon, I will lieklly switch to a new product available on Android.
Shortly I’ll be switching to an Android-based phone (Moto Droid, probably), and I would love to see e-Wallet on the Android platform. The smartphone space will be very competitive from this point forward, and I view Android as a lasting alternative in this space. I’m very happy with e-Wallet, and would hate to switch. If you don’t offer an Android-based product, I’ll have no choice but to move on.
If there was an Android version of eWallet, I’d buy it today. I’ve been using eWallet for many, many years on my Windows machines and my WM phones, and I just got the Droid the day it came out. The phone is fantastic, and if I have to choose between eWallet and the Droid, I’ll switch to KeePass.
I think some of the current statistics about the Android platform and the people using it aren’t very useful. As more people get it, they’ll be more likely to buy software for it, and there’ll be more people writing non-free software for it.
I have been using eWallet for more than the last 5 years now and have loads of data stored into it. I switched from Palm to iPhone only because iPhone had eWallet available. In the future if I decide to switch to Android then it will be if eWallet app is available on Android based device or not.
Like many of those above, I’ve been using eWallet for years and have talked many others into doing so. I am on Verizon and am about to get a smartphone, probably the Droid.
I’ve been playing with a trial version of SplashID (which seems to sync with everything) and will look at Keepass but I’d much prefer to stay with eWallet if possible.
I think with the release of the new Droid, you now have an explosion of new potential customers willing to buy eWallet. According to the AdMob Mobile Metrics Report, “Devices running on Android accounted for 17% of smartphone traffic in the US in September 2009, up from 13% in August 2009.” I’m sure that percentage will skyrocket now that the Dorid has been launched.
I don’t want to switch to another program, but if you don’t release an Android version (and soon), I will.
On 11/2/2009 you’re only just considering an Android port. That’s discouraging! As a longtime e-wallet user, I would have been glad to purchase an Android upgrade. But now I need to migrate to another app so I can get my info onto my new droid. I’ll stay on your update e-mail list, so in the future if you provide a port, I can consider switching back.
Have had the droid for a week and it’s outstanding. Watch the uptake on the stock Android 2.0 release. As I understand it, the droid is pure Android 2.0 without vendor UI mods. Per the Moto dev site, the Android 2.0 emulator IS the droid emulator. You might find a good business case supporting stock Android 2.0.
@Jim:
“On 11/2/2009 you’re only just considering an Android port”
Not quite accurate. We’ve considered an Android port since the device came out. Like all new platforms we continue to revisit it until we make a firm decision one way or another. With the release of Droid we thought it might be a good time to get some additional feedback.
I have moved over to the Droid and would like to continue using ewallet. There is no good password manager for the Droid except for SpashIDs product, which I would just as soon not have to try and import my data into.