Google’s Chrome Web Store flopping

Googles Chrome Web Store floppingThe Chrome Web Store has very little in common with Apple’s iTunes stores, with the exception of the obvious ripoff of UI. According to TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid, no one is buying anything on the Chrome Web Store, unlike Apple’s App Store.

A quick look around the Web Store shows dismal download rates for “paid” applications, and downright pathetic payouts for developers. Pathetic might be a bit harsh, but apparently MathBoard, an app that has the “most activity” on the web store, was only installed 65 times last week. According to Kincaid, that works out to being about $165 in the developer’s pockets per week. Not exactly enough money to keep the lights on, is it?

This really leads to some interesting thoughts. FIrst, what the heck is Google’s end game with the Chrome Web Store? It’s way too early to tell, but the lack of promotion, and lack of consumer interest in the product really makes you wonder if this thing is even worth the space on the internet. Secondly, will people really pay for glorified web apps? Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see web developers treated the same as iOS and other application developers, but have we gone so far down the “free-web” road that people will never pay up to use the services? The numbers on the Chrome Web Store suggest that this might just be the case. Free seems to rule the day when it comes to Google related projects, so it’s no surprise that their Chrome App Store has taken on a similar ecosystem.

The TechCrunch article suggests that free applications are getting way more attention on the Chrome Web Store, a ratio of 65 paid installations to about 8000 free installations, but if developers can’t keep the lights on in their offices, how can this thing even begin to flourish? Pretty curious don’t you think?

Article Via TechCrunch

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About Joshua Schnell

Man, Myth, and Legend, Joshua is the Editor-In-Chief, and founder of Macgasm. He produces two podcasts, Macgasm TV, and The AppOrchard, and can be heard on CBC Radio once every couple of years.

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Kenny Strawn

Excuse me, but do you call almost 4,000 apps "flopping"? I think not! The majority of the Chrome Web Store apps are free, and not all of them are restricted to the Web according to this:

http://kenny-strawn.blogspot.com/2011/05/some-chrome-os-apps-are-packaged-into.html

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Jihandepo

Google is the smartest company forever. They are doing what Apple snobs were missing out. The day Google starts with Crome OS will be an aftershock to Apple and other geeks that do not care anything about personal computing at personal level that Google offers soo much. I have been paying for mobile me for three years for nothing. What was I thinking? I though I liked Apple in a way after all these years I have been buying their products like crazy. All of the machines were cheaply made in China. I am free without Apple fantasy and Macs are just another platform for me now!

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Andy

with the free google netbooks sent out to selected requestors and the upcoming netbooks that will have Google's ChromeOS running on them, i think we'll see a much bigger market for these apps in the near future. google chrome and chromeOS just don't have the market share yet to show how much this app store will be used. google sent out 60,000 chromeOS netbooks around christmastime. apple pre-sold over 120,000 ipads before they were even available.

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Meoknet

The store isn't flopping. Google doesn't profit from it. If anything, it's Paid Apps that are flopping. It's not up to Google to market your apps. They just provided the marketplace infrastructure. It's up to you to sell your own app. Installable web apps is a new concept on the hold, and it was always a given that adoption would be slow, but I maintain, people can't blame Google if their apps aren't selling, they have blame themselves.

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Luís Yasuoka

That just shows that free apps can make MORE money than paid apps, somehow...

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