Despite the fact that the number of Android users is leading, in some regions of the world, Apple dominates the market.
In the countries with a high standard of living, like North America, Western Europe, Apple devices are more popular. On the other hand, Android leads the way in emerging economies, for example in South America, Africa, Asia.
Pay attention to the standard of living in the region where you intend to enter the market - it will help you to figure out which devices are used by your target audience.
There is no clear winner. Both operating systems are in good shape. According to the latest data, the share of iOS and Android development in the global market taken together is 99%. In the next few years, these platforms will not lose relevance.
Knowledge of the target audience is one of the most important factors when developing an app. Information about age, income, marital status, profession, and interests will help determine which operating system will be preferred by future application users.
Decide on the goals and services types of the future app to know what to choose: iOS vs Android programming. Then write down the parameters of an ideal client, such as:
Analyze the type and behavior of your target audience. What platform this type of person migh use for daily needs?
Analysis of the target audience will help determine which type of device is preferable.
Portfolio: LyvFit
Almost every project has to choose the first platform. Another example - LyvFit. A uber-like application that helps users looking for fitness trainers. After checking with the target audience, we understood that most of them are Apple users, and we decided to go with iOS first.
👉 read more...
Development and Launch
The cost of developing a project depends on its complexity and capabilities. As a rule, an iOS application is slightly easier and faster to create, because it will work on a small number of devices.
Due to a large number of smartphones and the fragmentation of Android, the development and testing process is complicated. This may also require additional time and money.
iOS development is faster and cheaper in terms of fragmentation. Android has many versions and many devices (24,000 different Android devices from more than 1200 manufacturers). This complicates the development and testing of the application, which leads to time and money costs. On the other hand, Apple is the only one who uses the iOS operating system. Their number of smartphones and other devices is limited, which saves a lot of time for developers and QA engineers.
Conclusion
Android & iOS development takes about the same time. However, the situation with Android is complicated if you would like to develop an application for a large arsenal of devices. Therefore, entrepreneurs usually choose the most popular Android devices, and they focus on the development around them. It will help to save money and time, but as a trade-off, the application might look and feel differently on other devices.
Social networking segment is one of the most attractive markets for new businesses. Just let us know if you want to find out how to make a social media app or if you have any question about this.
Monetization
Owners of iOS devices spend more money than owners of Android smartphones. This is pushing developers to create more paid applications mostly for Apple devices. From an economic point of view, it is more profitable to create an application for iOS first with a higher probability of attracting more users.
Thus, if you want to receive income directly from the application, go for iOS first. Users of this platform are more willing to spend money on applications. You can offer them to buy additional functionality or service within the application.
Apple users have almost five times higher purchasing power than Android users. That is why the developers of mobile applications for personal income, as a rule, focus on creating applications for iOS.
Android, on the other hand, gives you more opportunities to make money from ads. Thus, the application itself can be free, and advertising will pay for it.
To confirm it, here is a bit of shopping statistics in applications: Apple generates 45% more revenue per user than Android. In addition, iOS users make in-app purchases with a probability of 10% more than Android users. Even more: iPhone users are 15% more likely to visit online stores and more often make purchases on their phones.
Conclusion
Decide which source of income is relevant to your service.
Publishing to the Store
To publish an application on Google Play you need to:
Create an account;
Make a one-time payment (about $25);
Upload application. It will become available in an hour or two in Play Market!
After a couple of hours, users can download the application!
The App Store, unlike Google Play, has way more strict rules. To place the application in the App Store, you need to:
Create an account;
Pay an annual fee of $99, and for companies - $299;
Upload application;
Wait for your app review (1-2 days);
After the review process, your app will be in App Store!
There is a high probability that the App Store review team will reject the application. However, this is not a problem - they will provide some comments on how app can be improved. When done - you can submit your application again.
Conclusion
If you want to launch a successful mobile product, and know all the pros and cons of iOS app development, we will help you. On of our main focuses at mova.io - iOS development service . Just describe us your idea,and we will provide you with our best possible solutions.
User loyalty
Apple ecosystem has a huge army of fans. With every purchased Apple product, users want to buy more. After buying iPhone, most people will also move from PC to Mac after some time. Later, they might also purchase Apple TV and other devices. Because Apple is the only company who controls development of iOS, all devices ecosystem works seamlessly together, given its users high levels of satisfaction.
Most likely, Android users will go to the iPhone, and not vice versa. iOS allows you to focus on a market that includes a billion loyal customers.
Conclusion
On iOS, you can target a market in which there are one and a half billion loyal people, whose purchasing power is almost five times more than Android customers.
What to choose
You need to play by the rules of the mobile market. Of course, you cannot think and immediately create an application for all platforms of the world. Implementation of an application for a specific platform is a development process that requires the work of multiple developers and individual study of the interface design of each application.
Before creating a mobile application, it is worth weighing all the pros and cons and choosing the appropriate option for you.
Will it be a development of an application for iOS, for Android or for two platforms at once? Or the first one, then another platform, when will the first result be visible? Which mobile platform should be first? To help you, we tried to collect all the data on mobile platforms, which can become arguments for “pros” or “cons” and help you make the right decision.
General characteristics
Android
iOS
Android is a popular operating system for smartphones, tablets, watches, netbooks, TVs and other devices. This is an open mobile platform owned by Google. The range of mobile devices running on Android is very wide: they are Samsung, Xiaomi, Sony, Huawei, Asus, LG, OnePlus, Oppo, etc.
iOS operating system serves exclusively for the iPhone, iPad and wearable devices from Apple. Compared to Android, it is considered a centralized mobile platform, which makes life easier for many developers.
Mobile app market share and geographics
Android
iOS
This OS occupies approximately 80% of the mobile market. This means that the vast majority of all people on the planet who own smartphones are Android owners. Geographically, Android prevails in Eastern and some Western European countries, as well as in Russia, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, China, and other countries of East and Africa.
Only about 15% of the mobile market share is occupied by the iOS operating system. Most of this 15% live in the USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, France, and the Scandinavian countries.
The target audience
Android
iOS
According to various stats, Android users have an average or below average income because many smartphones on this platform are much cheaper than iPhones. Moreover, if we look at geography, we will see that these are mainly developing countries, where the average level of income is low. As for the nature of interaction with applications, Android users are often not willing to pay for applications, they are not too involved in digital space. At the same time, it is still possible to find a small niche for an application with unique functionality.
As a rule, Apple supporters have higher purchasing power. Nevertheless, more importantly, when developing a new mobile application, it’s the fact that Apple’s followers are mostly building the world of digital in some sort of religion. They are interested in new products and have a demanding taste. And this means that to create applications for iOS, you need to carefully consider the concept of the application, work through a great design, offer something unique and innovative. In general, you need to surprise.
App monetization
Android
iOS
If your application is not for business, and if you decided to work with Android OS than it is better to build a monetization strategy for advertising inside the application. Alternatively, come up with another way, but better not to sell a subscription, or sell it at a low price.
Owners of Apple devices are willing to pay for the installation of the application, but at the same time, they pay great attention to quality, data security, design, etc. No one wants to pay for a product that has better-quality counterparts, and the competition among iOS applications is very high.
Cost and speed of Android development vs iOS development
Android
iOS
The cost of development on both platforms can differ, and sometimes can be the same. The understand what budget and time it is worth laying on the development of a mobile application, you need to rely on the complexity and functionality of the application itself.
Summary
What platform to choose in the end?
As always in business, there is no single answer. The answer to the question depends on the application that iOS or Android developer is going to write. It is necessary to understand who your users are, for what audience it is planned to release the application and what devices this audience uses.
Android app development vs iOS app development. What is more promising?
Despite the large fragmentation, the share of Android devices in the global mobile market is more than 80%. Giant audience. Giant traffic volumes. If you plan to make a free application with an interesting advertising strategy, then definitely the most promising market is Android. If you have a paid app or you know for sure, that most of the audience is using iOS, then the choice is for devices from the Apple. Therefore, there is no unequivocal answer to the question "What is better: iOS or Android platform?
Have a question? Just write to us at:
📮 mail@mova.io
Photo by Matthieu Gavois / Unsplash
