Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Only Half of Top 100 App Store iPad Apps Available and Optimized for Android Tablets

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,528
30,833



app_store_icon_170.jpg
According to a new report from research firm Canalys, Android tablets have only a portion of the quality apps that are available on Apple's iPad.

30 of the top 100 paid and free apps in Apple's iPad App Store during the first half of 2013 were unavailable in the Google Play store. An additional 18 apps could be downloaded, but were not optimized for tablet users.

Only 52 of the 100 top App Store apps were available on Google Play and optimized for tablets. Six of those apps were originally paid apps in the App Store, but available in an ad-supported capacity on Google Play, which Canalys points out often provides an inferior experience.
"Quite simply, building high-quality app experiences for Android tablets has not been among many developers' top priorities to date," said Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Shepherd. "That there are over 375,000 apps in the Apple App Store that are designed with iPad users in mind, versus just a fraction of this - in the low tens of thousands - available through Google Play, underscores this point ."
Click to expand...
Earlier this month, Canalys reported that non-iOS tablets surpassed the iPad in global market share for the first time, with Apple taking just a 42.7% share of worldwide tablet shipments. Tablets from Samsung, Amazon, Lenovo, Acer, and others combined to capture 57.3% of tablet shipments.

Google Play downloads also reportedly surpassed App Store downloads during the second quarter of 2013, but despite greater Android tablet and smartphone shipments and a higher number of app downloads, Apple's App Store still brings in over twice the amount of revenue.

Canalys obtained its data on the App Store and the Google Play store by aggregating daily app rankings during the first half of 2013. Canalys has provided a detailed list [PDF]
of the top free and paid App Store apps that were available or unavailable for the Google Play store.

Article Link: Only Half of Top 100 App Store iPad Apps Available and Optimized for Android Tablets
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/08/14/only-half-of-top-100-app-store-ipad-apps-available-and-optimized-for-android-tablets/
Y

yousifabdullah

Cancelled
Jul 19, 2011
127
3
Proud to be an iPad user. :)

EDIT: I should clarify, I have used my iPad exclusively since late 2012. Bought the 4th gen when it came out and sold my rMBP the same week. I work in retail and as a librarian, need Office apps and I draw and make music in my free-time. I've found the iPad to be perfect for me. The app experience is the best I've ever had and I've tried out the Nexuses, Surfaces, etc. Can't wait for the 5th gen to drop, will buy a 128GB Cellular instantly! :)
 
jav6454

jav6454

macrumors Core
Nov 14, 2007
22,303
6,257
1 Geostationary Tower Plaza
I don't want to sound like a overzealous Apple lover, but....

Apple holding it's own against 5 other companies world wide is an impressive feat. Regardless if Apple's marketshare is just 42%. Rather impressive.
 
K

Karma*Police

macrumors 68030
Jul 15, 2012
2,514
2,850
I'd say that even the Android phone apps aren't on par with their iOS counterparts. Flixster comes to mind cos I just used it on my HTC and iPhone this weekend and the difference in design and polish was immediately obvious.
 
KidSqueek

KidSqueek

macrumors newbie
Nov 16, 2012
23
13
Those Andriod apps don't even compare to iOS apps when it comes to quality. Before my iPhone, I had a Android phone and I used my iPod touch a lot more than my phone because of the quality of the apps.
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,786
7,521
Los Angeles
Strange methodology

How many of the top Google Play apps are available for the iPad? Without answering that question the reported results could simply show that the marketplaces have different sets of apps, as opposed to one being a subset of the other.

It wouldn't surprise me to see proof that iPad apps are higher quality, but rather than show it this analysis begs the question by defining a high quality app as one available for iPad.
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Not all apps are created equal!

How many Android-exclusive apps are little system utilities/mods (fine, that can be neat, for sure) and how many are like the best iOS exclusives: real power apps? Like ArtRage, GarageBand, Procreate, Inkpad, Pages, Numbers, iMovie, Keynote, Textastic, iDraw, iTunes U, OmniGraffle, iPhoto, Bento, Omni Outliner, ArtStudio, Adobe Ideas, NanoStudio, Diet Coda, Intaglio, Freeform, TouchUp, iTeleport, and ReBirth.

Where are apps like these for Android? Not, “well, here’s SOME kind of app in this category,” but a truly top-level (and tablet-optimized) experience with that level of productivity, features, and quality?

There must be some--but far fewer; I can think of only two candidates: Photoshop Touch and Sketchbook (which is reportedly maddeningly slow on Android). But those aren’t exclusives—they’re on iOS too—and both have better competing apps that are iOS-only. (And often when an app technically exists both iOS and Android, the two versions are the same in name only, and side-by-side comparison makes the Android version look terrible.)

I'm amazed the number found was even 50%. I often look up an Android version whenever I find a new great app, and I almost never find one. (I do sometimes find an app with the same name and icon that's a scam or malware!)
 
J

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
I originally bought a Nexus 7 thinking it could be an iPad replacement and it worked for 4 months. Then I bought an iPad Mini and discovered that when buying all the same apps that I had on the Nexus 7, very few of the Nexus 7 apps were actually made for tablets, they were simply scaled up phone apps.

If I had bought my Mini first, I would not have bought a Nexus 7. iPad is that much better. It's all about the apps. Apps are clearly superior on iOS.
 
T

Tones2

macrumors 65816
Jan 8, 2009
1,471
0
Doctor Q said:
How many of the top Google Play apps are available for the iPad? Without answering that question the reported results could simply show that the marketplaces have different sets of apps, as opposed to one being a subset of the other.

It wouldn't surprise me to see proof that iPad apps are higher quality, but rather than show it this analysis begs the question by defining a high quality app as one available for iPad.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was thinking. Unless they go the other way, this report means very little. Not to say the results would or wouldn't come to the same conclusion, but the methodology of judgement is completely flawed.

Note that I've been using Samsung Galaxies for about two years after switching from my iPhone 4S, and I also use an iPad. So I continuously use apps on both platforms. And I can say unequivically that in general the totality of the apps are pretty comparable. There are certainly a lot of apps that iOS does better or don't exist on Android and many that Android does better or don't exist on iOS. The top aps are pretty comparable. Android is weak on anything that uses no-latency audio and iOS is weak on anything that needs access to file systems and a lot of menu options. Generally iOS apps look visually better while Android apps have more flexibility.
 
Last edited:
Technarchy

Technarchy

macrumors 604
May 21, 2012
6,753
4,927
Tones2 said:
This is exactly what I was thinking. Unless they go the other way, this report means very little. Not to say the results would or wouldn't come to the same conclusion, but the methodology of judgement is completely flawed.

Note that I've been using Samsung Galaxies for about two years after switching from my iPhone 4S, and I also use an iPad. So I continuously use apps on both platforms. And I can say unequivically that in geberal the totality of the apps are pretty comparible. There are certainly a lot of apps that iOS does better or don't exist on Android and mny that ASndroid does better or don't exist on iOS. The top aps are pretty comparable. Android is weak on anything that uses no-latency audio and iOS is weak on anything that needs access to file systems and a lot of menu options. Generally iOS apps look visually better while Android apps have more flexibility.
Click to expand...

The difference being that android users care more about what they are missing on iOS.

All my favorite android apps are on iOS. I do mean all.

But several of my favorite iOS apps are totally missing from android.

This doesn't even factor in apps that cater to specific industries like medical and education that don't have a prayer of ending up on Android.
 
D

deeddawg

macrumors G5
Jun 14, 2010
12,245
6,393
US
Anyone happen to notice that six of the top fifty are Apple apps? :D

----------
Technarchy said:
But several of my favorite iOS apps are totally missing from android.
Click to expand...

Amazon Prime Instant Video being one I've noticed missing. Wonder if there's a Kindle Fire related reason for that.
 
seecoolguy

seecoolguy

macrumors 6502
Nov 28, 2007
256
34
Tones2 said:
This is exactly what I was thinking. Unless they go the other way, this report means very little. Not to say the results would or wouldn't come to the same conclusion, but the methodology of judgement is completely flawed.

Note that I've been using Samsung Galaxies for about two years after switching from my iPhone 4S, and I also use an iPad. So I continuously use apps on both platforms. And I can say unequivically that in general the totality of the apps are pretty comparable. There are certainly a lot of apps that iOS does better or don't exist on Android and many that Android does better or don't exist on iOS. The top aps are pretty comparable. Android is weak on anything that uses no-latency audio and iOS is weak on anything that needs access to file systems and a lot of menu options. Generally iOS apps look visually better while Android apps have more flexibility.
Click to expand...


as an Android vs iOS, the two things I wish I could do on iOS would be

a) change default app, ie, swap out mailbox for default mail app
b) allow developers to tap into wifi analyzer type tools.

since I'm an iOS user and have pretty much abandoned android, I simply move my Mail App out of the dock bar, and while it's configured for email so that I can tap from within an app and email links or content out of my device, my preferred email app is mailbox. and it would be great if iOS allowed users to modify a bit of the iOS experiance in this regard (i guess it's mostly an issue for me since I am a gmail user, the point would be moot if I was an iCloud user, as I would still get push email).

for the wifi analyzer tool, it's not a tool I use often, but here is the gotcha. @ my work I have this app installed on my company nexus 7 (2012). it's the only thing I use it for. It spends it's life power cycling every couple of weeks when I remember to charge it.

allowing iOS admins to test an area for wifi connectivity is incredibly useful. because the damn nexus 7 is almost never charged up we have resorted to using a mba in it's place to test the signal strength.

if Apple allowed iOS developers to create a nice app like they used to, it would turn my iPhone into an all purpose device. no need to grab another tool.

I suppose I'm in the minority in these two ideas.
 
iLilana

iLilana

macrumors 6502a
May 5, 2003
807
300
Alberta, Canada
to be fair

name one very good music production app or midi controller on android that actually works well, looks good and is appealing to use. This scenario does however remind me of a certain video game industry . The whole DirectX vs openGL where it was heavily favoured to code games in directx only just because of certain financial incentives allegedly provided by Microsoft. Or could it just be that business goes where its good.
 
A

alexgowers

macrumors 65816
Jun 3, 2012
1,338
892
Seen it loads.

The customer doesn't know the difference until they've used both but there are certainly very few tablet apps on android and effectively all apps are scaled as screen sizes vary dramatically. It's a mess on android and it's never going to get better.
 
I

inlovewithi

macrumors 6502a
Sep 23, 2009
615
0
This article sounds like it was written by a certain type of person for certain type of people. Like picking and choosing stats out of context in order to feel good about the perception. I mean you would imagine that they would go deeper with their analysis, including listing the apps, but more importantly showing the top 100 androids apps and how many are not available on the iPad. I mean just to sound scientific, instead of bias.

----------
Tones2 said:
This is exactly what I was thinking. Unless they go the other way, this report means very little. Not to say the results would or wouldn't come to the same conclusion, but the methodology of judgement is completely flawed.

Note that I've been using Samsung Galaxies for about two years after switching from my iPhone 4S, and I also use an iPad. So I continuously use apps on both platforms. And I can say unequivically that in general the totality of the apps are pretty comparable. There are certainly a lot of apps that iOS does better or don't exist on Android and many that Android does better or don't exist on iOS. The top aps are pretty comparable. Android is weak on anything that uses no-latency audio and iOS is weak on anything that needs access to file systems and a lot of menu options. Generally iOS apps look visually better while Android apps have more flexibility.
Click to expand...

I don't have any iOS devices, so I'm curious how do they generally look better? I mean, I'm thinking of a developer who made the same app for both devices, why would the iOS one look better?
 
fourthtunz

fourthtunz

macrumors 68000
Jul 23, 2002
1,725
1,196
Maine
The copyists lose!!

It's good to see the copyists lose!
Hey they look something like the iPhone and the iPad,
But imagine the disappointment of getting the cheap knockoffs
And finding that they're junk...too bad.
Where's the government when you really need them?
Oh the humanity!!
 
F123D

F123D

macrumors 68040
Sep 16, 2008
3,776
16
Del Mar, CA
One of the reasons I still prefer an iPad over an android tablet. Maybe in a year or two. For now, waiting for the iPad 5.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom