One of the most common questions that businesses encounter when it comes to mobile app development is whether to choose iOS or Android platform for their app development requirement. Apple iOS and Google Android are the two most popular smartphone OS (operating system) dominating the smartphones market. So, how do businesses select which platform to develop their app over the other? In this article, we explain some of the most common and key factors which affect the decision of whether to choose iOS or Android, as follow:
Market share overview:
According to Statista, up to Q3/2018, Android is currently leading the smartphone OS market in terms of number of users capturing a staggering 88% of market share, with Apple iOS taking up the 2nd spot of 11.9% market share. Even though Android takes up the majority of market share, Apple iOS is known to produce better revenue and profit (from paid apps, in-app purchase and premium subscription).
In this case, if you want your app to reach out to as many users as possible then Android is a good choice here. On the contrary, if your app is the main source producing revenue for your business, iOS seems to be the better option.
Hardware:
Apple was the pioneer in the mobile application development industry and is still a market leader. Billions of apps have been downloaded from Apple app store. Apple has exercised a great control over providing great user experience by developing their own software and hardware, resulting in high-level performing finished product in a closed eco system.
One advantage of iOS over Android when it comes to developing mobile application is that Apple devices come in better fragmentation with only a certain number of models. Android devices, conversely, are available in many different models with different screen-size and hardware specs coming from various manufacturers.
This could make the mobile developers’ job become more difficult and also time consuming since they have to make sure your Android app can operate perfectly well across all devices with different screen-sizes and hardware specs.
Software Quality:
With advanced technologies and hardware components available at cheap cost for bulk manufacturing, smart phones have become more easily accessible to consumers world-wide. And even though Android has way bigger number of total users, Apple iOS app is still the preferred choice for many people as they find such iOS app quick and more responsive. Furthermore, applications submitted to Apple App Store requires an extensive quality check process to encourage developers put in efforts to constantly improve themselves producing quality apps. Another important point is that there is less piracy happened to iOS compared to Android. Users choose to pay for iOS since they know the value of what they purchase.
However, those latest Android releases have also been very robust and can match or even exceed iOS capabilities.
Conclusion:
It’s hard to say which smartphone OS is better compared to the other. In many cases, businesses decide to make their apps available on both platforms as to capture all the potential customers possible. This proves to be beneficial in the long term as the return on the investment of developing apps for both platforms far outweigh the costs incurred. Additionally, you can also outsource your app development project to a offshore software company which might help you reduce development costs as well as speed up time-to-market.
End-note:
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