I can't speak for actual numbers, but I always have thought it's wise to consider the possibility of rejection from the App Store. I own an Android phone, so I'm clearly biased, but it always seemed slightly ridiculous to develop for a platform where there's a chance of being arbitrarily rejected. There have been far too many stories of decent applications being rejected from the app store. Do you really want to take the chance of coding it for nothing?
Ask HN: Android or iPhone Os, where do you think the money is for developers?
21–24 of 24 posts
Re: Ask HN: Android or iPhone Os, where do you think the money is for developers?
#22Just a minor advice. If you do it mostly for the money, you won't be near as successful as if you do it because you are passionated about it.
Someone had to say this :P
Re: Ask HN: Android or iPhone Os, where do you think the money is for developers?
#23The experience is very telling, and at the moment it's a no-brainer - iPhone, and it will reign for a long time yet. If you want to develop for Android you're probably better on custom apps / devices (tablets, specialized apps) as an employee rather than as an independent app developer.
The market demographics are very different - Android : 3/4 male, purchase apps 1/2 as often as iPhone users. iPhone users, around 50/50 male/female, affluent (as Android comes with cheaper devices the owners of those devices probably aren't using the platform the same way as iPhone users do).
Obsolete platform hardware/software - this is huge. Most existing Android phones won't ever get an upgrade to 2.x Android OS. Therefore to reach the market, you need to make it backwards compatible with the 1.x, which is a PITA.
Apple has only just announced that their next OS won't work on original iPhone (2G). This is a massive difference. You have been able to build for the latest OS for all iPhone devices for 3 years. Contrast this to Android - some devices released in the last 6-12 months won't run software built against latest Android OS.
Flash - this is big and I believe it will push prices lower in the Android app store. There has already been a "race to the bottom" in some categories (e.g. games, think 99c variety) in the iPhone App store. iPhone users will pay for games that you can play in a browser on a late-model Android phone for free. Therefore there's less incentive to pay for these games on Android devices.
Discoverability will always be a problem for any platform.
Re: Ask HN: Android or iPhone Os, where do you think the money is for developers?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a Mac user I don't believe Apple users are susceptible to buying junk. Apple users are more spendy, on average, than a typical Windows users but there is a wide chasm between well designed, simple software and junk. The typical Windows user won't use more than what came with their PC on the day they bought it. Ever wonder why Dells, HPs, and Gateways come loaded with a lot of crap software? It's because ISVs know…
Ever wonder why Dells, HPs, and Gateways come loaded with a lot of crap software? It's because ISVs know that your typical user won't spend more than he has to. You are forgetting that Dell, HP, etc get kickbacks from the software companies.
You can take your chances with retail and hope someone is curious enough to pay for it or you can pay an OEM to include it and atleast the curious part will be satisfied.
Whether it's shelf space or disk space ISVs pay for it.