skobbler has withdrawn its free skobbler navigation app from Android market. Despite boasting over 1.5m users worldwide through the Apple App Store and a number one Navigation chart position in nine countries with its GPS Navigation 2 app, which sells for £1.49/$0.99 on iTunes, the company has opted against pursuing similar dominance on the rival platform.
“Our decision was a strategic one,” says skobbler co-founder, Marcus Theilking. “Despite the increasing popularity of Android devices and the Android market, our significant success with Apple’s model, and the difficulty in mapping this directly to Android left us with a decision to make in order to maintain the high quality of our software and manage frequent updates that have made skobbler so popular with Apple users. skobbler does, however, still see Android as a key market, and despite the absence of our navigation software, we will continue to use our extensive experience and powerful location technology to support the development of third-party apps.”
The announcement follows recent reports that outline the differences between the two markets and the difficulty involved for many developers in cracking Android’s free-app driven model. In a study carried out by Flurry Analytics, many developers claimed to make three to four times as much money from the iOS version of an app, compared to the Android version. The study assessed around 25 per cent of all apps downloaded from the App Store and Android market, and found that the same app made on average $0.24 on Android for every dollar on iOS. Coupled with the success of Google Navigation, Android’s free pre-installed satnav software, and skobbler’s decision is understandable.
Prior to the launch of GPS Navigation 2, in fact, skobbler offered a free satnav app for both iOS and Android. In September 2011, the company began migrating iOS users to the paid app, withdrawing the free version, and offering its users the paid version for free for a period of time. It did not launch a paid version on Android Market , however, for the reasons mentioned above. 
“It is with some regret that we came to this decision,” says Theilking. “But in order to build on the success of GPS Navigation 2, a strong strategic focus was required and, unfortunately, this meant cutting ties with the Android market as far as our navigation product is concerned. We’ve seen that the growth in paid apps on Android is significantly lower than that of free alternatives and other issues surrounding security, a wide range of devices and operating system versions and the appeal of free, pre-installed rivals left us in a difficult position.”
Skobbler says its focus going forward will be to prioritise consumer products for the iOS market, though it will still remain active in the Android market by continuing to develop apps for third parties.
