1. A 2018 Outlook iOS vs. Android App Development

2. Android or iOS App: What do You Build? • Companies no longer ask the question: Do we make an app? • The new question is: What kind of app do we make? • The major app platforms dominating the market are Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Most companies must choose one or the other to host their app. • While it is possible to have an app on both, the costs involved can be intimidating for small and medium sized companies. • Often, a look at the advantages offered by both platforms can help with making a choice. …

3. Android App Development: Pros • Android has the largest user base in the world. Android apps run on more devices globally than any other app on any other platform. • The Android Software Development Kit (SDK) is free of charge and can be used by anyone without payment. This makes it a more democratic, free setup. • Android apps can run on a number of operating systems including Windows, Linux and Mac. • It is much easier to design an Android app, as it uses Java, a programming language that most programmers are intimately familiar with. • To develop on Android, one simply has to pay a one-time fee of 25$. It is the cheaper option by far. …

4. Android App Development: Cons • Despite the large number of users, people tend to spend less on Android apps. They usually download free apps, which makes generating revenue challenging. • Android’s non-uniform standards for apps may cause lack of compatibility between the apps and the wide variety of Android devices. (However, Google is updating its app submission guidelines and making it stricter for quality control) • Not every Android user upgrades to every new version of the operating system (OS). This means that an app will not work on every Android device unless it has been optimized for all versions of the OS. • Similarly, an Android app has to be optimized for thousands of devices, which means thousands of screen sizes, button placements, unique features, etc. Obviously, this is cost-intensive. …

5. iOS App Development: Pros • iOS users usually have higher incomes and tend to spend more on apps. This facilitates higher profits. • The iOS SDK is considered largely to be more mature and sophisticated, and the API is believed to be far more stable. This makes more better structuring of the software. • Since iOS apps have to optimized for a finite number of devices (only Apple devices), user interface (UI) standardization is accomplished with far greater ease. • Apple’s tough-as-nails quality control mechanism ensures that only the most well-developed apps are made available on the store. …

6. iOS App Development: Cons • Apple’s stringent approval methodology delays the release of most apps by week, sometimes months. • The same standards can restrict innovation. Your definition of innovation must match that as specified by Apple. • The App Store is designed to display a small number of search results on each screen. This means that unless your app has received thousands and millions of downloads, it might not show high up in the results. This might lead to your app not being viewed. • To develop on iOS, one has to pay 99$ per year for a subscription. With all the other factors, this can eat significantly into possible profits. • iOS apps only run on Apple devices. Naturally, the customer pool is much smaller, as is the earning potential. …

7. Which is Better? iOS or Android? • The question to decide upon is not whether one platform is better than the other, but which platform suits your needs better. • This will depend on your resources, your target customers, what devices they use, their income levels and what kind of user experience they are looking for. • Investment in research to gain this information is crucial to settling the question of iOS vs Android App development. …

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