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iOS Continues to Hold Significant Lead over Android in Developer Interest
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I learned an expensive lesson about iOS vs- Android
If I tell a complete stranger with an iPhone "I have an app check it out" there is a good chance he'll buy it.
on the other hand
If I tell my best friend of 30+ years with a droid "I have an app check it out" "Sorry man I don't buy apps, not even sure how to go about it"
Apple has made everyone realize apps, songs, etc. have value and 99 cents isn't too much of a price to pay.
Android and more so Google is about FREE. No one buys anything Google makes (Android, Gmail, maps, etc) this also extends to the apps, it's like a culture of free. If I have no hope of selling my app then I'm not going to make apps for Android. For me it's that simple. Other complaints about android are meaningless to me.
If I tell a complete stranger with an iPhone "I have an app check it out" there is a good chance he'll buy it.
on the other hand
If I tell my best friend of 30+ years with a droid "I have an app check it out" "Sorry man I don't buy apps, not even sure how to go about it"
Apple has made everyone realize apps, songs, etc. have value and 99 cents isn't too much of a price to pay.
Android and more so Google is about FREE. No one buys anything Google makes (Android, Gmail, maps, etc) this also extends to the apps, it's like a culture of free. If I have no hope of selling my app then I'm not going to make apps for Android. For me it's that simple. Other complaints about android are meaningless to me.
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I actually see things leveling out.
The rise of iOS and Android have come at the expense of Microsoft and RIM's mobile initiatives.
RIM looks like a goner but MSFT will claw its way back. Had hopes for WebOS but HP is still in screw up mode.
I suspect that in a few years the one leading the big three will have an overall share of about 40% of the smartphone market.
The rise of iOS and Android have come at the expense of Microsoft and RIM's mobile initiatives.
RIM looks like a goner but MSFT will claw its way back. Had hopes for WebOS but HP is still in screw up mode.
I suspect that in a few years the one leading the big three will have an overall share of about 40% of the smartphone market.
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I know a lot of people with iPhone who never buy a app and also a lot of people with jailbreak and installous. Not all of us are angels.
Google is the new Microsoft and Apple is the... New Apple
Even I love to use Apple products very much, on the mobile branch Apple is the new Microsoft.
And Google is something new, never seen before.
Incorrect, iPhone 4s is "free" on some carriers, for example, Vodafone:
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/brands/iphone/pay-monthly-iphone/index.htm
Sure, your paying a hefty monthly fee, but still, given away "free".
Problem with Android, it has the reputation that no one buys applications. I'm not surprised developers are more interested in iOS.
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/brands/iphone/pay-monthly-iphone/index.htm
Sure, your paying a hefty monthly fee, but still, given away "free".
Problem with Android, it has the reputation that no one buys applications. I'm not surprised developers are more interested in iOS.
Really?
Every cell phone store I see has an offer for a free iPhone, whether it is a 4S, 4 or 3GS. Here are a couple of links:
http://www.three.co.uk/Store/Phones/iPhone
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/brands/iphone/pay-monthly-iphone/index.htm
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mo...NE-4S-16GB/MONTHLY?intcmp=HP_APR_iphone_WEBEX
"iOS 5 is reported to be installed on 75-80% of active devices as measured from a sample of downloads from the popular Audiobooks application."
and how is that considered accurate except for users of audiobooks?
and how is that considered accurate except for users of audiobooks?
From that same chart I could say developer interest in iOS is on the decline
Yea.... except you see percentages. The share is shown, not the number. It could be that the growth of iOS development is just slower than that of Android. As many pointed out: The revenue is important for developers - simply, most of them live off it. So, you either have a good free app where people touch your banners or links often enough so you make money, or you get your app to be bought for real money in the first place.
Now, if your App at the AppStore (Apple, for those who don't know
) brings in revenue, you might just stick with it and make it better, get some in-app purchaise going if possible, etc. and you won't count for "new releases" anymore in the above statistic.Others mentioned it: Android is all about free and mass. If you are the same developer and your app just does so-so, you gotta get the next app onto the bandwagon so you keep getting money. Updates etc. might not accumulate the revenue like in iOS, so they are less attractive. Besides, having to deal with "screen size multiplied by Android versions running" - or a gazillion possible configurations - your App might be buggy on a lot of devices and then you just keep bugfixing (not even mentioning that the bugfix could create a malfunction on a device it worked well with before the "fix").
Talking about that: How many devices do you have to own as a dev to make sure it works vs. developing on iOS? iPhones:
1. original
2. 3g
3. 3GS
4. 4
5. 4LTE
6. 4S
(and some iPod Touch - but same hardware and screen sizes)
So, you are at less than 20 devices for handheld. Now, just look how many different ones come out each month for Android. I can imagine, it's a nightmare...
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Google Analytics
Not to rain on the android-bashing parade (also one of my past times) but those stats are terribly flawed. They just show developers who are using Flurry. Google Analytics for Android has been maturing and it makes sense that for devs that build on the Google platform this should be their default choice.
I use Flurry on both iOS and Android, mostly for historical reasons but it would be very incorrect to assume Flurry is representative of the whole market.
Not to rain on the android-bashing parade (also one of my past times) but those stats are terribly flawed. They just show developers who are using Flurry. Google Analytics for Android has been maturing and it makes sense that for devs that build on the Google platform this should be their default choice.
I use Flurry on both iOS and Android, mostly for historical reasons but it would be very incorrect to assume Flurry is representative of the whole market.
I 100% agree. Developing for Andriod makes zero sense. My company has a very successful app yet all we hear is that we need to make an Andriod version.
Internally all we are saying to ourselves is that going down that path is a waste of money and time since they do no have a unified os nor app store.
Thankfully Apple does things right!
Internally all we are saying to ourselves is that going down that path is a waste of money and time since they do no have a unified os nor app store.
Thankfully Apple does things right!
And a valid reputation at that. I know of several people who have had both an android and an iPhone who purchased apps for iOS but not their android.
If you've ever done web development over the past couple years and had to support IE6, IE7, and IE8 while also wanting to take advantage of the capabilities of more modern browsers like the recent versions of IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.... well to put it in a nutshell, developing for Android is like 10 times worse.
Yea, what ecosystem would you buy in doing that anyways? I believe Android phone users buy a phone to have a phone. They might have an iPod as well or a Zune player or any other multimedia accessory incompatible with the Android market. I chose Apple after my wife had an iPod Touch. I plan on sticking with it (having 2 iPhones and 2 iPads in the house...) and therefore don't have to think twice if I can access the music or App I buy on iOS. Music even uploads if automatically to my PC on iTunes. Yes, you can argue that you could have that all with Android hardware - to be honnest, the typical Android phone user does not commit to that and that makes iOS the better market as well. Soon, I can probably use my XBOX360 as extension because even Microsoft does not want to loose Apple customers. Again: Its the ecosystem.
A little bit more critical analysis from MR?
These stats are totally meaningless. They show the usage patterns for one particular tool (Flurry) on both platforms. What if Android has better alternatives than Flurry and Android developers simply prefer those? What if Android development environment is much better and simply does not requires tools llike Flurry's?
These stats are totally meaningless. They show the usage patterns for one particular tool (Flurry) on both platforms. What if Android has better alternatives than Flurry and Android developers simply prefer those? What if Android development environment is much better and simply does not requires tools llike Flurry's?
Google is the new Microsoft and Apple is the... New Apple
Windows was never fragmented to the extent android is now.
What if there aren't better tools? What if there are better iOS tools? We will never know. Fact: MR mentioned on what the stats is based on. That is fine with me. You won't find stats for jailbroken iOS anywhere either, I guess. There are several devs posting in here. As long as you are not one of them and you would know that "Android development environment is much better and simply does not requires tools llike Flurry's," what does your post tell us? Other than the limitation of that statistic, nothing. But we know about that limitation already... I just didn't hear any of the devs which do develope for both contradicting that statistic.
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I've got apps out for both iOS and Android, and there are pros and cons.
I dislike developing on Android due to having to have a million+1 work arounds to make apps work across the multiple different OS versions and screen resolutions.
I prefer developing for iOS due to the much cleaner, consistent OS.
That being said, I hate the iOS submission process, which seems to be intentionally designed to piss off developers, compared to android's which is a case of compile with your security certificate ans upload. iOS is obviously a much stricter platform, resulting in more stable final apps.
I do however still find that Android income is MUCH higher than iOS income.
I dislike developing on Android due to having to have a million+1 work arounds to make apps work across the multiple different OS versions and screen resolutions.
I prefer developing for iOS due to the much cleaner, consistent OS.
That being said, I hate the iOS submission process, which seems to be intentionally designed to piss off developers, compared to android's which is a case of compile with your security certificate ans upload. iOS is obviously a much stricter platform, resulting in more stable final apps.
I do however still find that Android income is MUCH higher than iOS income.
Just be mindful of what the stats actually tell.
Fact: MR mentioned on what the stats is based on.
Fact: the stats are not only based on Flury's data they only show how much Flury is used by developers on both platforms. This tells absolutely nothing about the popularity of the two platforms unless some additional data/analysis is provided. Something like "100% of developers on both platforms use Flury". Then we would know that there is 100% correlation with platform popularity. Or, "Flury is used by 90% of iOS developers and 5% of Android developers". In which case, looking at the presented chart, we would conclude that Android is a much more popular platform than iOS.