Fed up with business model, security worries and pre-installed alternatives.
The Berlin-based SatNav firm has confirmed it will be withdrawing its GPS Navigation 2 navigation app from the Android Market with immediate effect in order to focus solely on iOS.
The reason seems to be one of resources, with skobbler claiming that it can't deliver the same level of product quality and updates if it works across two platforms.
But it's also the case that the dominance of freemium in the Android space has left many developers wondering if they can even monetise it.
“Our decision was a strategic one,” said Marcus Theilking, co-founder of skobbler. “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."
However, he did add that the firm would continues to support the development of third-party apps on Android.
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It's especially hard in the navigation space, given that Google Navigation is free and pre-installed on devices.
“It is with some regret that we came to this decision” Theilking said.
"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 has over iOS 1.5 million users and sells a variety of apps on the Apple store for between 69p and £1.49.
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