Logo
X
  • Who We Serve
    • By Role

      • CEO / Business Executives
      • CTO / IT Professionals
      • COO / Operations Head
    • By Industries

      • Healthcare
      • Digital Commerce
      • Travel and Transportation
      • Real Estate
      • Software and Technology
  • Our Technology Focus
    • Web
    • Mobile
    • Enterprise
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Blockchain
    • DevOps
    • Internet Of Things
  • Discover Daffodil
    • About
    • Leadership
    • Corporate Social
      Responsibility
    • Partners
    • Careers
  • Resources
    • Blog

    • E-Books

    • Case Studies

    • View all resources

  • Who We Serve
    • By Role

      • CEO / Business Executives
      • CTO / IT Professionals
      • COO / Operations Head
    • By Industries

      • Healthcare
      • Digital Commerce
      • Travel and Transportation
      • Real Estate
      • Software and Technology
  • Our Technology Focus
    • Web

      Create responsive web apps that excel across all platforms

    • Mobile

      User centric mobile app development services that help you scale.

    • Enterprise

      Innovation-driven enterprise services to help you achieve more efficiency and cost savings

      • Domains
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • DevOps
      • Blockchain
      • Internet Of Things
  • Discover Daffodil
    • About
    • Leadership
    • Corporate Social Responsibilities
    • Partners
    • Careers
  • Resources
    • Blog

      Insights for building and maintaining your software projects

    • E-Books

      Our publications for the connected software ecosystem

    • Case Studies

      The impact that we have created for our clients

    • View all resources
daffodil-logo
Get in Touch
  • What We Do
    • Product Engineering

    • Discover & Frame Workshop
    • Software Development
    • Software Testing
    • Managed Cloud Services
    • Support & Maintenance
    • Smart Teams

    • Dedicated Teams
    • Offshore Development Centre
    • Enterprise Services

    • Technology Consulting
    • Robotic Process Automation
    • Legacy Modernization
    • Enterprise Mobility
    • ECM Solutions
  • Who We Serve
    • By Industry

    • Healthcare
    • Software & Technology
    • Finance
    • Banking
    • Real Estate
    • Travel & Transportation
    • Public Sector
    • Media & Entertainment
    • By Role

    • CEO / Business executives
    • CTO / IT professionals
    • COO / Operations
  • Our Expertise
    • Mobility
    • UI/UX Design
    • Blockchain
    • DevOps
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Data Enrichment
    • Digital Transformation
    • Internet of Things
    • Digital Commerce
    • OTT Platforms
    • eLearning Solutions
    • Salesforce
    • Business Intelligence
    • Managed IT Services
    • AWS Services
    • Application Security
    • Digital Marketing
  • Case Studies
  • Discover Daffodil
    • About us
    • Partnership
    • Career & Culture
    • Case Studies
    • Leadership
    • Resources
    • Insights Blog
    • Corporate Social Responsibility
Get in Touch
resources-bg.jpg

Software Engineering Insights

Android vs iOS App Development: Which Platform Works Best for You?

Aug 16, 2017 6:27:56 PM

  • Tweet

Android VS iOS App Development

The current smartphone market is dominated by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. In the first quarter of 2017, 379.97 million smartphones were shipped worldwide; 327.16 (Android), 51.99 (iOS), 0.82 (others).

With this, mobile apps are and would be the smartphone essential, for sure. Statistics for the year 2017 (Q1) unveil that Google Play Store is home to 2.8 million apps while the iOS Store to 2.2 million apps.

With such great numbers and Android-iOS duopoly, which platform to choose between the two has been a topic of endless debate. However, with a discussion over some major factors, deciding on the app development platform could be easy. Here we are with 5 development aspects that can help you to make an informed decision.

1. Market Share of Android and iOS

In the Q1 of 2017, 86.1 percent smartphones that were sold to the end users were running on Android OS. This includes the Operating System for smartphones, tablets, PDAs, and other mobile devices.

Mobile-OS-market-share-2017.png

 Global Mobile OS Market Share 2017 [Source: Statista]

Reason 1: One of the strongest reasons behind high market share of Android, in comparison to iOS and other mobile OS is the availability of Android to wider range of users. It is believed that there is an Android device for every smartphone user, in terms of budget, features, and usability. Moreover, the list of Android phone manufacturers is staggering. Therefore, mobile apps that are build for Android holds on better chances to reach a lion’s share of targeted users, across the globe.

Reason 2: The average cost per installation (CPI) for Android is just 0.44 USD while it’s 0.86 for the iOS apps (by February 2017). CPI is the amount that users pay for an app installation. Low CPI rate for Android apps estimates that Google Play Store has got more free apps than iOS Store.

Global-Android-iOS-app-CPI-2017.pngAverage CPI for Android and iOS (Globally) [Source: Statista]

2. Revenue Generated by Consumer Spend

An app that’s popular and makes profits is like an added feather in the cap. The ideas to monetize a mobile app are quite similar for both Android and iOS apps, but still the revenue generated by app stores vary.

If we talk about the largest single store in context to revenue generation, iOS Store leads the game. However, recent research proves that in the year 2017, Android apps will make more money, which means Google Play Store will continue to dominate the iOS Store (in terms of profit) in the following years. This drastic difference is contributed by third party Android stores that make the consumers to spend more money on the apps.

“By 2021, iOS Store is predicted to have a revenue worth $60 billion through consumer spend, while Google Play Store, along with third party stores will take it to $78 billion.”

revenue-estimation-1.png

If we go with the stats shared above, app stores for Android and iOS holds equal potential to generate revenue. While the iOS Store is the individual performer , the overall revenue generated by Android apps is supported by third party app stores.

3. Android and iOS Development Ease

Mobile apps have high dependency upon the hardware that they are intended to run on. If we compare the hardware for Android and iOS devices, fragmentation seems to be the biggest concern for Android developers. Simply, if an Android app has to be developed, the developer has to keep countless devices into consideration. This may include different screen sizes, DPIs, aspect ratios, and more. Along with this, there is huge fragmentation in the versions of Operating System.

“By August 2017, Nougat (the latest Android OS edition) runs on 13.5% devices. On the other hand, iOS10 (the latest iOS edition) is running on 87% and iOS9 on 10% devices.”

Also, if we take a look at the market share of Android versions, they are fragmented. This creates a problem for developers as they have to come up with responsive design according to the device (which Xcode supports better than Android Studio). With this, a lot of consideration has to be given when adding a new feature to the app as the difference in versions may prevent a large share of users to access it. In this context, we can conclude that developing an app for iOS platform is a little simpler than for Android.

Android-versions-market-share-2017.png

Market share of Android versions 2017 [Source: Statista]

4. App Store Publishing and Restrictions

Android being an open-source offer significant advantages to developers. For beginners, Android gives access to the system’s inner working, which gives developers more space to experiment and give life to their ideas. This can be anything, ranging from app customization to launchers to floating apps (multitasking), and more.

And if we compare the ease of publishing an app on the store, Android comes out to be a sure winner in this case. The matter of fact is, even if iOS does not restrict developers from creating what they want, Apple does. The guidelines to get an app published on iOS store is stringent, as compared to Android.

  • For publishing an app on Google Play Store, you need to do one-off payment of 25USD. Once submitted for approval, it takes few hours to get the app reviewed and get the downloads started.
  • iOS Store calls for annual, recurring fee of 99 USD for publishing an app. The submission for app needs to be clear and formal, to be understood human testers. Average app store review time is 3 days.

No matter into which industry does your app belong, verifying the guidelines is the most important part of publishing an iOS store. The following example can you an idea about how particular Apple is about when it comes to submitting an app to its iOS store.

“In the year 2009, an eBook app by Ted Lando named ‘Take Control of iPhone OS 3’ was rejected by Apple. The app found its space back in the store when all its references to jailbreaking were removed.”

5. Category Comparison of App Stores

Android and iOS stores have 30+ app categories. To understand which platform works well for your app, you can compare the popular categories of the app. While gaming apps holds the number one position in both the app stores, rest of the 4 categories vary.

In July 2017, business apps were the second popular category, with 9.83% of all active apps on the iOS store being the business app. While in the Google Play, apps within the tools category remain the most downloaded and popular.

Android App Development

Similarly, the third, fourth, and fifth highest app categories vary. In the decision making process of which platform to choose for your app, popularity of the app category can help. If you are developing an app that falls under the business, education, lifestyle, or entertainment category, build it for iOS store first as user base for related apps might be wider here. And you can follow the same platform choosing criteria for Google Play Store apps.

Google-Play -most-popular-app-categories-by-downloads-2017.pngMost popular app categories 2017 (Google Play )  

Apple-most-popular-app-store-categories-2017.pngMost popular app store categories 2017 (Apple)

Conclusion: 

Both the app development platforms, Android and iOS have got benefits over one another. While one offers a great market share, another holds the potential to generate amazing revenue, single-handedly.

However, if you find it hard to decide between the two, you can find a way around, and that’s building a hybrid app through cross platform development. It allows developing an app for both the platforms simultaneously, with the amazing ability of code sharing. To know more and get started with your app, you can check out our mobile application development services.  

Topics: Mobile App Development

Archna Oberoi

Written by Archna Oberoi

Content strategist by profession and blogger by passion, Archna is avid about updating herself with the freshest dose of technology and sharing them with the readers. Stay tuned here as she brings some trending stories from the tech-territory of mobile and web.

Previous Post

previous_post_featured_image

5 Facts to Consider While Moving to DevOps

Next Post

next_post_featured_image

Must have Technologies in Healthcare Applications

Stay Ahead of the Curve with Our Weekly Tech Insights

  • Recent
  • Popular
  • Categories

Lists by Topic

  • Software Development (175)
  • Artificial Intelligence (169)
  • Mobile App Development (166)
  • Healthcare (137)
  • DevOps (80)
  • Digital Commerce (60)
  • Web Development (57)
  • CloudOps (54)
  • Digital Transformation (37)
  • Fintech (36)
  • UI/UX (29)
  • Software Architecture (27)
  • On - Demand Apps (26)
  • Internet of Things (IoT) (25)
  • Open Source (25)
  • Outsourcing (24)
  • Blockchain (21)
  • Newsroom (21)
  • Salesforce (21)
  • Technology (18)
  • Software Testing (16)
  • StartUps (16)
  • Customer Experience (14)
  • Robotic Process Automation (13)
  • Voice User Interface (13)
  • Javascript (11)
  • OTT Apps (11)
  • Business Intelligence (10)
  • Data Enrichment (10)
  • Infographic (10)
  • Big Data (9)
  • Education (9)
  • Microsoft (6)
  • Real Estate (5)
  • Banking (4)
  • Game Development (4)
  • Enterprise Mobility (3)
  • Hospitality (3)
  • eLearning (2)
  • Public Sector (1)
see all

Posts by Topic

  • Software Development (175)
  • Artificial Intelligence (169)
  • Mobile App Development (166)
  • Healthcare (137)
  • DevOps (80)
  • Digital Commerce (60)
  • Web Development (57)
  • CloudOps (54)
  • Digital Transformation (37)
  • Fintech (36)
  • UI/UX (29)
  • Software Architecture (27)
  • On - Demand Apps (26)
  • Internet of Things (IoT) (25)
  • Open Source (25)
  • Outsourcing (24)
  • Blockchain (21)
  • Newsroom (21)
  • Salesforce (21)
  • Technology (18)
  • Software Testing (16)
  • StartUps (16)
  • Customer Experience (14)
  • Robotic Process Automation (13)
  • Voice User Interface (13)
  • Javascript (11)
  • OTT Apps (11)
  • Business Intelligence (10)
  • Data Enrichment (10)
  • Infographic (10)
  • Big Data (9)
  • Education (9)
  • Microsoft (6)
  • Real Estate (5)
  • Banking (4)
  • Game Development (4)
  • Enterprise Mobility (3)
  • Hospitality (3)
  • eLearning (2)
  • Public Sector (1)
see all topics

Elevate Your Software Project, Let's Talk Now

Awards & Accolades

dj
dj
dj
dj
dj
Aws-certification-logo
microsoft-partner-2-1
microsoft-partner
google-cloud-partne
e-UI-Path-Partner-logo
partner-salesforce-reg-consulting-partner-1-1
daffodil-logo
info@daffodilsw.com
  • Home
  • About Daffodil
  • Locations
  • Privacy Policy
  • Careers

© 2025 Daffodil Unthinkable Software Corp. All Rights Reserved.

[fa icon="chevron-up"]