Expanded Stats Greet Android Developers on the Dashboard
It looks like Google is at it again: attempting to deliver deeper and better visualization of statistics and data for developers. They’ve moved in this direction before with Google Analytics for the web, but now Android developers are getting more benefits from the sheer amount of data that Google is capable of gathering about the distribution and usage of developer’s apps.
AndroidGuys covers the release of this new dashboard element for us,
Android developers logging into the application dashboard will find themselves looking at a host of new and expanded data. A new “Statistics” mark greets developers immediately upon entering the Developer Console whereupon they can dive deep into where their app goes. Want to know which handsets are running your app? What about which languages are the most popular? How nice would it be to see exactly which versions of Android are most popular among your users? Yep, it’s all there.
One of the consequences of giant audiences is the attraction of Big Data and its impact on the ability of individuals—not just giant corporations with their own number crunching departments—to digest and use the information gathered by their analytics to make their products better.
The new Statistics tab on the Android console will open up a new world of understanding for developers to help guide the construction and lifecycle of their apps. Knowing what people use them for, how many people are using what version of their app, and when they’re using them might be the crux of determining what users might want out of the future. This is especially important with the number of apps flooding into the Android Market and the number of Android phones available on the handset market itself.
How else will you know if there’s a particular version of your app that users like better than the most recent release? I know that with PC apps there have been times where I’ve deliberately downgraded to get a functionality that was lost during a “redesign” back—and sometimes that represents a strong stripe of feeling in the customer base that needs to be addressed before the app can move forward.
By putting more visualization and deeper reporting into the data gathered by Google about their apps, they deliver a better experience for developers who can then turn that around and approach what their customers want and need as a group.
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