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19 hours ago, AdamStanislav said:

Raspberry Pi alone has millions users all over the world.

What is the marketshare on Pi OS?  I mean I have seven Raspberry Pi hardware units, but they are all running a digital signage OS instead of a desktop environment.

I wonder, out of the 35 million total Raspberry Pi hardware units sold worldwide, do the units running a desktop environment come anywhere close to the 30+ million Android tablets sold each year. Samsung alone shipped almost 60 million units during 2020 and 2021 combined. That's not counting Lenovo and the dozens of off-brands being sold like Huawei or Walmart's Onn.

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11 hours ago, AdamStanislav said:

Why stop there? Why not Raspberry Pi? And brickOS, and QNX, and MS DOS, and NuttX, and Apache Mynewt, and BlackBerry and Firefox OS, and TurboDOS, and Oberon, and Netware, and JavaOS, and FreeDOS, and Xinu, and OpenSolaris, and..................

I get that you're going for humour here, but wow is this logic flawed.. trying to draw comparison between the most successful tablet OS on the market which sells millions of capable graphics devices a year and.. MS DOS and Oberon.

Apples with Oranges much? Or maybe apples with carpet rusty nails..

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On 5/23/2022 at 7:37 AM, Muttley said:

Sadly – and that's the point – there is not a single alternative to Affinity Photo when it comes to Android apps. Especially if you're looking for a photo editor with desktop-like UI and with no subscription plan. Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are only available by subscription, same applies to On1 Photo Raw, Snapseed has a rather smartphone-like UI, Pixlr E is not available for Android, Pixelmator neither etc.

I've been investing a LOT of time searching for some usable photo editor for my Samsung Tablet (S7+) and I had to resign. Now I somehow get along with using Samsungs built-in photo editor and/or Snapseed for simple image editing and using PhotoPea in the browser for more serious photo editing stuff (when it comes to make local adjustments and/or working with layers), but switching between different photo editors is not an ideal solution. So I wish Affinity would finally recognize they'd face no serious competition if they were bringing Affinity Photo to Android, but they don't seem to care a lot resp. prefer to stay with the "cool kids" (namely Apple)... What a shame!

I don't know what Serif Europe is planning/not planning to do but only catering for a more limited range of manufacturers, tablets and later Android versions is the way that they might possibly go assuming that they take any such decision.

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Fo Photo editing with a good Desktop-like UI, there's an online browser-based option incredibly fast on Android (Illustration using the S-pen in it is far better than in an iPad,  and I use a Tab S6 lite).

https://www.photopea.com/


Clip Studio is a good option too, but asks for a good hardware.
 

But, well... I want Affinity for Android.

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  • 1 month later...

So.

Yes - Affinity if you're reading this +1 for Android tablet version.

 

To the general conversation - I don't hate Apple (I use MacOS as my main driver) but I also use Windows and Linux (don't hate either) - though the rumoured requirement in the next release of Win 11 that I have to log into an MS account to use it means I'd revert to 10 as even Apple don't require that! The lack of a single desktop and API means desktop Linux is I imagine a nightmare to support. 

I chose Android as my phone OS back in the day over IOS as it was too locked down and too expensive for what it was, and it's just a phone. I still (mostly) feel the same way. I don't live off my phone. I certainly wouldn't consider using any of the Affinity products on a phone. I imagine that the bulk of Android is running on phones and Affinity on IOS won't run on an iPhone either.

I have run a commercial software company and supporting different platforms is hard, and making sure bug fixing on one doesn't have side effects on another consumes a LOT of regression testing, and yes a good dev-ops chain helps but doesn't cure. Also I did commercial software and I can't think, having done some game infrastructure support on handsets, it's easier for consumer software. Finally I don't know if Affinity use a toolkit to support MacOS/IOS & Windows, but if they do, and that toolkit doesn't offer a Linux or Android flavour then porting becomes even more of an issue. 

I too think that the top end Android devices are as good/better than the IOS equivalents, I currently have an S4 and S6 despite not being a Samsung fan, simply because they are very good devices. Android supports a mouse cursor out of the box, so that's a possibility for a more desktop like experience and equivalence when running on Android. On Samsungs the s-pen built-in would be a good thing to support (assuming Samsung have a sensible api and maintain it properly).

Anyway - I doubt (very happy to be proved wrong) based on my personal experience seeing them being used is that the number of equivalent Android tablets is even close to the number of iPads. As other's have said Affinity will make their own business decisions based on their view of the ROI for their product sets. I hope that the interest in this thread informs that decision in a positive way, despite the sometimes hysterical and confrontational nature of the conversation and that we get an Android version as I'd buy both Photo and Designer straight away.

Just my penny's worth of course.

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1 hour ago, Amnesiac said:

So.

Yes - Affinity if you're reading this +1 for Android tablet version.

 

To the general conversation - I don't hate Apple (I use MacOS as my main driver) but I also use Windows and Linux (don't hate either) - though the rumoured requirement in the next release of Win 11 that I have to log into an MS account to use it means I'd revert to 10 as even Apple don't require that! The lack of a single desktop and API means desktop Linux is I imagine a nightmare to support. 

I chose Android as my phone OS back in the day over IOS as it was too locked down and too expensive for what it was, and it's just a phone. I still (mostly) feel the same way. I don't live off my phone. I certainly wouldn't consider using any of the Affinity products on a phone. I imagine that the bulk of Android is running on phones and Affinity on IOS won't run on an iPhone either.

I have run a commercial software company and supporting different platforms is hard, and making sure bug fixing on one doesn't have side effects on another consumes a LOT of regression testing, and yes a good dev-ops chain helps but doesn't cure. Also I did commercial software and I can't think, having done some game infrastructure support on handsets, it's easier for consumer software. Finally I don't know if Affinity use a toolkit to support MacOS/IOS & Windows, but if they do, and that toolkit doesn't offer a Linux or Android flavour then porting becomes even more of an issue. 

I too think that the top end Android devices are as good/better than the IOS equivalents, I currently have an S4 and S6 despite not being a Samsung fan, simply because they are very good devices. Android supports a mouse cursor out of the box, so that's a possibility for a more desktop like experience and equivalence when running on Android. On Samsungs the s-pen built-in would be a good thing to support (assuming Samsung have a sensible api and maintain it properly).

Anyway - I doubt (very happy to be proved wrong) based on my personal experience seeing them being used is that the number of equivalent Android tablets is even close to the number of iPads. As other's have said Affinity will make their own business decisions based on their view of the ROI for their product sets. I hope that the interest in this thread informs that decision in a positive way, despite the sometimes hysterical and confrontational nature of the conversation and that we get an Android version as I'd buy both Photo and Designer straight away.

Just my penny's worth of course.

You talked mostly about tablets, but remember modern Chromebooks run Android apps too. That would open up a range of laptops with keyboard / mouse built-in.

I realize the following would be a whole new beast, but if Affinity could merge the desktop and tablet interface into a duel switching app for hybrid tablets like the Microsoft Surface on Windows and the wide variety of devices running Android, they could have quite the package. 

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pixelstuff you're right - I didn't consider Chromebooks as, for me, they fail in too many respects - the one I have used, a freebie given to my wife, went to charity as it was neither fish nor fowl. Obviously other people have different views/budgets/priorities to ours and they hit a sweet spot for them.

So, yes a fair point and a small but maybe growing user-base. It'd be interesting to see how that develops and the average revenue per user that the platform drives for developers and how much of the addressable market Affinity feel they could command.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I swear i will pay as much as on ios for affinity suite on android tablets atleast samsung tablets. My boss gifted me with affinity suite last year and i fell in love with the software no more adobe like crashes or lags on my office laptop, no more heating up. The ui was modern and the tools were so great just the ones i wanted i do miss the illustrator image trace and some plugin support but every else is great. Took me a month to get around but it was worth it. Editing pdfs graphically was never this easy before. But i use my samsung tablet for many more things now as my laptop is heavy duty one now and is heavy in weight and i can't use mac os or iOS this easily like windows. I haven't been able to find a 1 stop desktop ui like app for editing photos, graphics and pdfs luke i used to in windows i can give strokes to layers or do symbols like in affinity designer. Please I request serif affinity to make affinity suite for android like theres a microsoft office 365 for android. It is a major market with literally no competition like your apps on iOS i m sure android systems will be great for affinity suite. 

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13 hours ago, Anurag Yadav said:

I swear i will pay as much as on ios for affinity suite on android tablets atleast samsung tablets. My boss gifted me with affinity suite last year and i fell in love with the software no more adobe like crashes or lags on my office laptop, no more heating up. The ui was modern and the tools were so great just the ones i wanted i do miss the illustrator image trace and some plugin support but every else is great. Took me a month to get around but it was worth it. Editing pdfs graphically was never this easy before. But i use my samsung tablet for many more things now as my laptop is heavy duty one now and is heavy in weight and i can't use mac os or iOS this easily like windows. I haven't been able to find a 1 stop desktop ui like app for editing photos, graphics and pdfs luke i used to in windows i can give strokes to layers or do symbols like in affinity designer. Please I request serif affinity to make affinity suite for android like theres a microsoft office 365 for android. It is a major market with literally no competition like your apps on iOS i m sure android systems will be great for affinity suite. 

Have you looked more portable devices like the Surface Pros or other equivalent lightweight laptops?

Also, have you researched emulator technologies like appetize/cider, ipadian etc to see if they could possibly help you?

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  • 2 months later...

I did try to find other windows based alternatives like surface pro but while they are great they are also too much price for the specs i need and i already have a windows laptop i dont need another one. But i do take my samsung tablet everywhere and yes i looked into ios emulator for androids but nothing has given me the results i desire and i would prefer to by official affinity suite for android tablets rather than pay for ios apps which may not work properly on an android tablet

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3 hours ago, Anurag Yadav said:

I did try to find other windows based alternatives like surface pro but while they are great they are also too much price for the specs i need and i already have a windows laptop i dont need another one. But i do take my samsung tablet everywhere and yes i looked into ios emulator for androids but nothing has given me the results i desire and i would prefer to by official affinity suite for android tablets rather than pay for ios apps which may not work properly on an android tablet

I agree! I find it VERY disappointing that Serif doesn't even consider releasing an Android version of their products (at least Affinity Photo). Nothing comes close to Affinity Photo when looking for a subscription-free photo editor with a desktop-like GUI; unfortunately, many developers of creativity-centered software (obviously Serif too) have decided to snob out Android in favor of some more exclusive deals with Apple, even if there is a substantial number of Android users out there and not a few of those users would be willing to pay some amounts of money to have an Android version of those apps. 😒😒😒

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh yes, it's terrible. I would have loved to draw pictures on my OnePlus SmartWatch!

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | INTEL Arc A770 LE 16 GB  | 32 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.3296)
AMD A10-9600P | dGPU R7 M340 (2 GB)  | 8 GB DDR4 2133 MHz | Windows 10 Home 22H2 (1945.3803) 

Affinity Suite V 2.4 & Beta 2.(latest)
Better translations with: https://www.deepl.com/translator  
Interested in a robust (selfhosted) PDF Solution? Have a look at Stirling PDF

Life is too short to have meaningless discussions!

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On 10/30/2022 at 11:16 AM, Muttley said:

I agree! I find it VERY disappointing that Serif doesn't even consider releasing an Android version of their products (at least Affinity Photo).

Just got confirmation from Serif they still aren't considering it. Would've convinced me to get the v2 Suite.

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1 hour ago, KimHmrs said:

Just got confirmation from Serif they still aren't considering it. Would've convinced me to get the v2 Suite.

Honestly, I didn't expect anything else from Serif. They are getting prominent promotion from Apple (like Affinity products being featured in Apple ads/brochures/presentations) in return for the favour of exclusivity; this angers me a lot (I find it hard no to get gross/insulting towards Serif) and I'm utterly disappointed too, but they've made clear that they have chosen their sides (I guess even a poll or petition wouldn't change anything at all) and this is a clear message I'll acknowledge with consumer restraint! 🤨

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6 minutes ago, awakenedbyowls said:

If you search for "Affinity Designer" on the App Store it throws up Adobe and a load of similar Apps, but no Affinity

If you look at the slides from the last Apple keynote, you might notice a slide depicting Affinity 2 apps – even way before Affinity 2 was officially announced.

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5 hours ago, awakenedbyowls said:

OK. But I'm talking about the search engine.

 On the iPad Store, I had to search for Serif. Something seems to be wrong.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • 1 month later...
On 10/30/2022 at 10:16 AM, Muttley said:

I agree! I find it VERY disappointing that Serif doesn't even consider releasing an Android version of their products (at least Affinity Photo).

I find it disappointing but it's not a personal insult that a vendor doesn't make a product for your personal choice of hardware.

On 10/30/2022 at 10:16 AM, Muttley said:

Nothing comes close to Affinity Photo when looking for a subscription-free photo editor with a desktop-like GUI;

Agreed, that's why I've paid for V2 as soon as I saw that it was available on both Windows and Mac (I don't own an iPad but I do have some Android tablets) and I'd pay for Affinity if/when it ever comes to Android.

On 10/30/2022 at 10:16 AM, Muttley said:

unfortunately, many developers of creativity-centered software (obviously Serif too) have decided to snob out Android in favor of some more exclusive deals with Apple,

Serif clearly don't have any exclusivity agreements with Apple and I doubt they have any agreements with Apple at all. They are after all available on Windows for a start! The fact that they gave Apple permission to use their products or materials is probably seen by them as good free advertising and if MS wanted to do the same they'd probably be happy for them to as well.

On 10/30/2022 at 10:16 AM, Muttley said:

even if there is a substantial number of Android users out there and not a few of those users would be willing to pay some amounts of money to have an Android version of those apps. 😒😒😒

And here's the nub; what is 'a substantial number' for a one-off payment app? Developing for a new platform isn't easy it's not a simple matter; a whole dev team would be needed new skills, etc etc. It's a matter of, if we as a company invest in this platform what is the return on investment over what timeframe and is it worth us spending money on? Don't forget money then has to be spent to cover the on-going development and maintenance costs etc etc which are NOT cheap esp given that the Android devices are much less homogenous than iPads. I suspect that the costs just don't add up and they are a small business who don't have the resources to throw at things, and in the markets they ARE in already they need to spend that investment on keeping the bugs fixed and the products current.

There are lots of good apps on IOS not available on Android but probably for the same reasons their developers haven't ported them either.

For people who NEED Affinity products (rather than want) them on a tablet I suspect they've gone and bought an iPad. I suspect their rationale will be at a personal level like Affinity's... if I use this tablet will it make me enough in fees for it to pay for itself in a reasonable timeframe... if yes... buy device!

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23 minutes ago, Amnesiac said:

I find it disappointing but it's not a personal insult that a vendor doesn't make a product for your personal choice of hardware.

Agreed, that's why I've paid for V2 as soon as I saw that it was available on both Windows and Mac (I don't own an iPad but I do have some Android tablets) and I'd pay for Affinity if/when it ever comes to Android.

Serif clearly don't have any exclusivity agreements with Apple and I doubt they have any agreements with Apple at all. They are after all available on Windows for a start! The fact that they gave Apple permission to use their products or materials is probably seen by them as good free advertising and if MS wanted to do the same they'd probably be happy for them to as well.

And here's the nub; what is 'a substantial number' for a one-off payment app? Developing for a new platform isn't easy it's not a simple matter; a whole dev team would be needed new skills, etc etc. It's a matter of, if we as a company invest in this platform what is the return on investment over what timeframe and is it worth us spending money on? Don't forget money then has to be spent to cover the on-going development and maintenance costs etc etc which are NOT cheap esp given that the Android devices are much less homogenous than iPads. I suspect that the costs just don't add up and they are a small business who don't have the resources to throw at things, and in the markets they ARE in already they need to spend that investment on keeping the bugs fixed and the products current.

There are lots of good apps on IOS not available on Android but probably for the same reasons their developers haven't ported them either.

For people who NEED Affinity products (rather than want) them on a tablet I suspect they've gone and bought an iPad. I suspect their rationale will be at a personal level like Affinity's... if I use this tablet will it make me enough in fees for it to pay for itself in a reasonable timeframe... if yes... buy device!

The issue faced by Serif Europe when it comes to Android is the high level of operating system version fragmentation and the number of different manufacturers that insist on making their own customisations so it becomes significantly more difficult for the software supplier to reliably cater for that huge range of variations that you just don't get with Apple's products.

Although it won't please everybody, a way round that might be to follow Adobe's example and only officially cater for Samsung tablets with the most recent Android operating systems only as they have the largest share of the tablet market:

https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/tablet/worldwide

 

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29 minutes ago, Snapseed said:

follow Adobe's example

Yes, assuming that subset is large enough - Adobe is a big corporation with subscription revenues their ROI calculation & risk appetite is going to be very different from Serif's. If Samsung have done a good job with their S-pen APIs it's a good choice too as the high end Samsungs have a proper digitiser built in I'd certainly love to have Affinity on my S4 or S6 tablets.

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