While the 5-10 day approval process to get the App Store is inconvenient for developers, it gets a disproportionate amount of attention. The limiting factor in software development is and will remain to be engineering resources. Building on the Apple ecosystem still takes considerably less time and effort to complete an app than Android, due to consistent and up-to-date hardware & software, common design patterns, a robust developer ecosystem, and generally a more sophisticated development platform.
Android is for startups
61–70 of 310 posts
Re: Android is for startups
#62Why don't they build a web app if they want to iterate faster?
Re: Android is for startups
#63Free apps do well on Android. Paid apps (Outright & Free + In App Purchases) generate more revenue on iOS. Being able to show traction is important for startups but, being able to show increased revenue is equally if not more important. Until Android on a whole proves to be more lucrative to monetize apps, many developers will continue building iOS first (imho).
Your statement is true, but sort of missing the point of the article. Sure, "many" developers "will" wait "until" Android "proves" better. But some won't, and there is value in being part of the early ones to jump. The article is advocating jumping now and gives some arguments (not all of them convincing IMHO) as to why that's a good idea. You're just saying that not everyone will take the advice. Well, yeah. :)
Android might never prove better. When/if it ever does then I will reevaluate and deal with being a fast follower rather than a first mover.
However, it is premature at this stage to state that Android is the better platform for startups.
Re: Android is for startups
#64> But if you build an app on Android that’s on par with the design quality you’re used to on iOS, your users will love you. The press will love you. Gizmodo will feature your app just so they’ll have a nice header image for their “Android Apps of the Week” post. That's nice, but will it translate into sales? Probably not, given the horror stories of Android piracy that seem to come out every few weeks (particularly i…
Of course, the other stat is that almost all that piracy comes from China, which doesn't have the Play Store so people there can't buy your apps anyway.
Go with Android because that's where all the users are!
Piracy? Meh, all those users are in developing countries and won't buy your app anyway!
Re: Android is for startups
#65I think the difference in development comes in when you need to do some hardware testing. With apple you need to design for 3 different display sizes, with 2 resolutions each. You also have to test your product on (at most) 12 different devices, and that's if you really want to cover the field. On the other hand, with Android, if you want to do it right, you need to design for hundreds of different screen sizes, all…
there was an article posted here a few weeks ago that talked about an android development company/group that boiled it down to ~10 major categories of devices that they needed to test with to get maximum device acceptance. So for them, unless a whole category of device comes out, like a smart watch for example, they do not need to have every device to test.
and this encompassed screen sizes and OS versions.
Re: Android is for startups
#66Another post on the top of Hacker News making the mistake of thinking paying customers give a crap about how easy it is to [write|deploy|test|debug] your app. Even with all the pain associated with the App Store people still write more apps for it than ever. Why? Cause people pay for apps there. They don't on the Play Store.
Android has just passed 1 million apps (so clearly more apps are added to Android, faster), and has more app downloads than Apple now. It's also just passed 1 billion devices.
Whatever the story of Android has been in the passed, things are rapidly changing, and it's better to be there first, instead of coming in later to an established competition.
Re: Android is for startups
#67Another post on the top of Hacker News making the mistake of thinking paying customers give a crap about how easy it is to [write|deploy|test|debug] your app. Even with all the pain associated with the App Store people still write more apps for it than ever. Why? Cause people pay for apps there. They don't on the Play Store.
I think this article is more directed at startups that are offering some kind of mobile mostly functionality, they should think about doing development Android first.
Tests about different directions to take, or anything, really, are much simpler with a faster turnaround.
Re: Android is for startups
#68I don't agree with this. Basically the author thinks that you can test the market if a particular idea / app is worth making by releasing on Android first. The problem is that the android users will most likely hate the UI and the bugs as it will probably be thrown together. When releasing an app on iOS, you don't have to include ALL features, you can release an app that is well designed and functions well with limit…
> you don't have to include ALL features You sure do have to include a lot of features though. You've no chance if your app is a simple one because you'll get hit with one of these: 2.12: Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected
I believe you are referring to the app store guidelines. The article mentions the android market place.
Re: Android is for startups
#69Another post on the top of Hacker News making the mistake of thinking paying customers give a crap about how easy it is to [write|deploy|test|debug] your app. Even with all the pain associated with the App Store people still write more apps for it than ever. Why? Cause people pay for apps there. They don't on the Play Store.
This is another post that seems to have missed the point of the linked article. The last graph I saw estimated total revenue from iOS apps was about 2x that of total Play Store revenue (though to be fair, this undercounts Android a little as you can monetize apps via Amazon et. al. too). And of course Android is growing much faster. The contention in the linked article is that by pushing your "startup" app (which the…
The last graph I saw estimated total revenue from iOS apps was about 2x that of total Play Store revenue
If Google had sent that much to developers they'd be saying something. 90% of the data points we see are of the form:
My app made X on Android and 5-10X on iOS
Re: Android is for startups
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you don't have to include ALL features You sure do have to include a lot of features though. You've no chance if your app is a simple one because you'll get hit with one of these: 2.12: Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected
I believe you are referring to the app store guidelines. The article mentions the android market place.
Of course I'm referring to the App Store as that's what your comment was about. If you want to publish on the App Store you need to make sure your app can't be thought of as 'limited' as then the reviewer could reject it, citing rule 2.12 - whereas on Android you can release almost whatever you want.