We have spoken with the programmer @RubenGM and we have asked him some questions about the Android world and the programming for this platform:
P: Hello Ruben. For those who do not know, creator of several applications that are on the market. What apps do you have published?
R:Hi  I have a few published right now:
- Brucut, an application for the social network about hairstyles of the same name that I commissioned for its creator (we studied together; P).
- Apk Uploader for root, a utility to make backup copies of your applications that I no longer update so I put the version that used to be paid for free and removed the free one.
- Various soundboards, which I made to fiddle with sounds in my spare time.
- Series for Android, the most popular of which I have (much more popular than I expected at first), and by far the one that I have spent the most hours on.
- Series for Android Premium, paid version that adds extra options and makes Series for Android even better 
- Android Series MySeries Widget, a widget that shows your favorite series on your desktop along with the number of episodes you still have to watch. It is compatible with both the premium and free versions.
P: Many devels complain about fragmentation, although we have already seen that 3/4 of the terminals are using Android 2.1 or higher. Who do you think is the fault of so much fragmentation, Google or Companies? Is it a serious problem when developing an idea for Android?
R: The fault lies mostly with the manufacturers and the operators in equal measure: Some for not wanting to update their "old" mobiles (Hello, Samsung and Motorola) and others for withholding or rejecting the updates that manufacturers send, when they do.
It is a problem depending on the type of application you want to make, although I specifically have not encountered any major problem due to fragmentation. The only strange thing I found was related to the latest version of HTC Sense (the one that comes from Desire HD), which causes random errors in the application and they disappear for no apparent reason when updating it.
Other developers will have much bigger headaches than mine, especially if they start to depend on hardware or "recent" features of the SDK and it is time to decide between having a very cool feature in your application in exchange for losing access to 20% of users.
P: There are writers and critics who claim that Android is not a mature system, not very useful for any user and that it still has a lot to mature to reach a level that borders on perfection, because the perfect OS does not exist. Do you think Google should further mature the versions and the OS before releasing them?
R: Android is a very young operating system and it is still growing a lot (you only need to compare cupcake or donut with gingerbread to see that it has improved a lot), but that does not mean that it is not useful for the average user: I have started in the world from Android to many of my friends and almost all of my immediate family and they are all delighted both with the system (the integration with Google services is a guaranteed success) and with its applications, free and paid.
Google's philosophy with software is to publish updates as often as possible and they show that with Android. Compared to Windows they are releasing new versions at a frantic speed and the system improves and evolves much faster. If they happened to publish the updates on an annual or biannual basis, a lot of user feedback would be lost, which is always a great help when developing something. It is for all audiences and quick updates help to correct and improve the system in a more dynamic way.
P: In terms of personal experience, what is the jump to go from a free app to an app with a publicity and finally to a paid app. What values ​​have you taken into account to decide to launch a paid version of your application?
R: As a developer, when creating an application you have to ask yourself if you are doing it for profit, if you are satisfied with recovering expenses or if you are simply doing it for fun or to learn:
- If you do it for fun, it is better not to advertise: Users will be happier and the entire application itself will be faster.
- If you only want to recover expenses you can put a little non-intrusive advertising on the cover or menu where the user spends more time and maybe a donation button (that 99% of people will ignore, yes: P).
- When it comes to making a profit, things are quite complicated: All advertising houses pay very, very little for the advertising shown in Spain (and much less for that of Africa, China and perhaps Russia), here the gold is found in the United States, Germany and the UK. If your application is global enough to be used there a lot, with advertising you can already make a profit and it will not be necessary to make a paid version ... if you don't want to.
I made Series for Android Premium to be able to compensate for the hours I dedicated to the application since on good morning the advertising only gave me $ 2. It took me a while to do it because up to a certain point I thought "I would not pay for this", but when certain ideas began to emerge and evolve both with my ramblings and experiments and with user suggestions, I began to prepare the new application that used the database. of the free one (which is 100% usable, it is not a simple demo) but with add-ons designed for people to see them and say "for what it costs, it's worth it."
I see a lot of apps that have a paid version just to get rid of ads (one of them was mine  and I don't think any of them have been very successful. The average user finds it hard to pay when there is no added value.
P: You think that a developer has to take into account the requests of their users or instead follow a line to get the initial idea they had, without deviating from the path.
R: In my opinion, user requests are to frame and save. As long as you do not destroy the rest of the application, you have to try to implement what the users ask for because, after all, it is for them that we make the applications.
P: Let's get wet. Will Android be the platform of the future? Do you predict a 2-gang fight or will Windows Mobile end up getting into it?
R: In my opinion, everything indicates that Android will be the most widespread platform with iOS and WP7 behind it, but let's hope it does not reach a monopoly: Competition benefits us all.
P: Do you think that projects like CyanogenMod or MIUI harm the path of the Android platform or that they make it more open or free?
R: They are two very different cases: CyanogenMod is open source and based on AOSP, so it is a much purer Android than what you can find in many Samsung, Motorola or HTC, while MIUI is a total change and closed source, without the ability to "give back" improvements to the community.
Having clarified this, they both seem great to me: Each one targets a very different segment of users while with other platforms what there is is what there is and if you don't like it, buy something else.
P: Finally, those who read us and do not dare to program for Android. What advice / warnings you give to those who doubt whether to start programming for Android.
R: Programming for Android is a very fun and rewarding experience, I have learned a lot and now I am taking advantage of it in my work life 
Sometimes you can get frustrated when something doesn't work the way you think it should or when someone doesn't read the description or simply doesn't know that their phone doesn't do magic and ends up giving you a bad review with a one star vote (That hurts!), but every time you solve a big hurdle or someone tells you how much they love your app... you feel like all the effort was worth it 