Q&A: MLB.com Boss Bob Bowman on Android Owners, Facebook Video and Apple’s Subscription Rules

Peter Kafka: You’ve complained publicly before about the difficulty in supporting multiple flavors of Android for your apps. But this year you’ve expanded the number of Android handsets you’re supporting from 6 to 11. Did you ever consider not working with Android at all?

Bob Bowman: The short answer is no. But what we have done is that we don’t support every Android phone. Because at some point, it’s diminishing returns. The Android user typically is less likely to buy, and therefore the ROI on developing for Android is different than it is for Apple.

In comparison, the NFL Network announced that 76% of NFL Mobile Only From Verizon customers subscribed to watch video of Combine events, with a 128 percent increase in NFL.com’s total video streams from last year. The NFL Network also announced a record 2010 season with 6.6 million viewers.

In the first season of NFL Mobile Only from Verizon, a record number of fans turned to their mobile devices for NFL coverage as NFL Mobile is one of Verizon’s most successful apps.

The success of NFL Mobile was only available to select Android phones on Verizon, and I’d argue the MLB would do just fine support a few of the worth mentioning Android phones in the market. Kafka and Bowman also discuss Apple’s subscription model, and the MLB’s desire in primarily supporting the iPhone and iPad.