Android isn't monetising well, claims Glu

Though some believe it may well overtake iPhone over the course of the next few years, developers are finding it hard to make the most out of Android.

That's according to Glu Mobile's CEO Niccolo de Masi.

In an interview with Mobile Entertainment, de Masi claims the relative freshness of Android Market when compared to the App Store makes driving revenue from it much harder to achieve.

"Android isn’t monetising well," he said, candidly.

"It doesn't have the billing infrastructure of 100 million iTunes accounts or carrier billing, and it's not a mature experience – it's a difficult browsing experience compared to iTunes."

Won't work  was made to work

However, Glu remains committed to the platform overall, de Masi going on to claim that Android has its strengths – strengths that the development community will take advantage of, sooner rather than later.

"What works is the tight integration of store plus software plus hardware, and everyone has got to make that magic formula work," he said. "They will – the challenge is not if, but when."

His comments come just weeks after he defended the publisher's position. Glu is recovering from the departure of de Masi's predecessor Greg Ballard as part of a wider restructuring at the start of the year.

It's de Masi's belief that the future of Glu relies on its ability to make the most of smartphone marketplaces like Android Market and the App Store.

"If we make games for declining platforms, we're going to be dead business in six months' time," he told PocketGamer.biz at Mobile World Congress.

"Smartphones are the opportunity and people who own smartphones buy more games. This is the market we're setting out to capture."

[source: Mobile Entertainment]

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