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nightsurge on 06 March 2013
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rocketpig said:
wick said:
ebw said:
wick said:
It's like the PC vs MAC battle all over again.

I guess Apple don't learn from their mistakes.

Yup, all the developers target iOS first due to lower costs (very few OS versions and devices to support) and higher sales ($11 billion and counting), leaving Android users to whine and beg for late ports.  It totally reminds me of being a Mac user in the late '90s.  Android can stay afloat with Google-proprietary apps, just like Apple made iLife and Final Cut Pro exclusive to MacOS in those days.  If history repeats itself, Android might eventually grow into a decently popular option that can finally call itself part of the mainstream.


Considering Android own 75% of the market, your whole statement has just been shot down in flames.


Last I read, the average iOS user spends four times as much money on apps as the average Android user. And also, iOS web traffic is still higher than Android traffic despite Android dominating the market. That means iOS users actually use their devices, something ad-based developers live and die by. Marketshare, while important, is not the only story here.

So, yeah, there's a reason why developers still prefer to write for iOS and port to Android. It's easier to write for iOS, there are less versioning and fragmentation problems, and you only have to write for 5-7 hardware configurations at any given moment.

Regarding spending money on apps, I am sure that is likely because there are millions more free apps on Android as opposed to iOS where it seems the $.99 app is much more common rather than being free/ad supported.

Regarding web usage, I bet a large portion of that is due to the iPad since that is used quite a lot in business and has been around in the tablet market much longer. I noticed you didn't quote some solid statistics though, and I imagine that every day that web traffic stat gets closer and closer to Android's favor.

Programming for Android is actually very easy. Especially for those used to Java programming. And the fact that it is an open market without all the overly strict processes involved with Apple leads many developers to go Android first, then port to Apple later. More and more this seems to be becoming the case. I know in my company, all of our apps are first released on Android and then slowly ported over as we have time.