ANDROID VS IOS DEVELOPMENT: Which Platform to Start With?

Even if you have a sufficient budget and have the ability to invest in the development of both platforms, it is nevertheless easier and smarter to start with one:

• First, if you develop on two platforms at once, you will spend a lot of money and time on development. You need to save resources.
• Secondly, the main goal of a startup is to attract the first customers, gather an initial audience, and, based on their feedback and opinion, make changes to the app to improve it. When developing apps on two platforms at once, you need to understand that the costs will increase.

What platform to choose?

If you have decided to start implementing your application on one platform, you need to choose it responsibly. It is impossible to answer unambiguously which platform is better to choose, here everything depends on the specifics of your product business model.

But, we will tell you about the main factors to be focused on when choosing a platform.

What to do:

1. Create a working prototype or MVP of the application.
2. Bring it to market.
3. Collect feedback.
4. Fix the problems.
5. You can go to another platform, expanding your audience reach.

1 — Statistics, sir

Currently, according to statistics, Android accounts for 71.59% of the global market. Experts predict that this trend will continue in the future.

If you have a need for a wide audience, that's one of the facts that matters.

But, on the other hand, iOS apps allow you to reach an audience that has more buying power than Android users.

Conclusion: decide what is more preferable for you: the biggest market reach or the greater buying power of customers.

2 — Let's look at the map

Despite the fact that overall Android leads in terms of the number of users, in some regions of the world Apple dominates the market.

These are countries with a high standard of living in North and South America, Europe, Asia.

Android leads in emerging economies.

Conclusion: pay attention to the standard of living of the region in which you are going to enter the market

3 — Target audience

This is one of the main factors for making a decision. If you don't know your target audience, you're shooting blind.

Decide on the goals and type of services of the future app.

Then spell out the attributes of the ideal customer:

• Age
• Gender
• Income level
• Occupation
• Education
• Marital status
• Interests, views, beliefs

Analyze the type and behavior of your target audience. What platform does she use for her needs on a daily basis?

Conclusion: Analyzing your target audience will help you determine which type of device is preferred.

4 — Save your energy

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 1,200 manufacturers). This makes it difficult to develop and test an app, which leads to time and money. Only Apple uses OC iOS and has a limited number of smartphones and tablets.

Conclusion: iOS and Android development takes about the same amount of time. However, the situation with Android is more complicated if you develop an application for a large arsenal of devices. Therefore, choose the most popular flagships on the market and make a project for them, because your project will look and work poorly on low-quality devices.

5 — Source of Income

If you want to generate income directly from the app, implement it on iOS. Users of this platform are more willing to spend money on apps. You can offer them to buy additional functionality or a service within the app.

Android gives more opportunities to make money from advertising. Thus, the app itself can be free, and advertising will pay for itself.

This is confirmed by the statistics of in-app purchases: Apple generates 45% more income per user than Android. Also, iOS users are 27.68% more likely to make in-app purchases than Android users.

Conclusion: Determine which revenue source is more relevant for your service.

6 — Startup Difficulties

It's easier to publish an app on Google Play Market:

1. Create an account
2. Make a one-time payment of $25
3. Download the app
4. A couple of hours later, users can download

The App Store has a stricter approval policy:

1. Create an account
2. Pay an annual fee starting at $99, and $299 for companies
3. Download the app
4. Wait for your app to be evaluated (about 2 weeks)
5. Share it or get rejected.

Conclusion: to create an app for iOS, you need to make sure that the developers have experience in launching apps on the App Store.

7 — Android Defectors

When choosing a platform, also consider the fact that it is more common for Android users to switch to the iPhone, not vice versa. Apple users are "closed" in their ecosystem and hardly ever switch to other platforms.

Conclusion: on iOS, you can set up targeting for a market with one and a half billion loyal customers whose buying power is almost five times greater than Android customers.

See the situation from the customer's point of view

If you want to sell something to a user, think like a user.

Factors the customer pays attention to:

• Apple is a perfectionist, the company works very carefully on each new model. And Android allows you to customize the system "for yourself", including by installing louncers.
• The applications on the iPhone are of higher quality and the design is more refined.

Conclusion: iOS applications should be developed by professionals to match the level of Apple and get carte blanche from the App Store.

• Fast iOS updates. They come out regularly and are immediately available to all customers for all available devices. Updates for Android take a long time to come out, which slows down the download of new apps.

Conclusion: app users are more active on iOS, since there are no problems with updates. The new application is compatible with any iPhone model.

• The interface on iOS is comfortable. Successful people choose iOS because it has a usability interface and saves time for action.

Conclusion: if your target is just such people, the choice is obvious..

• iOS is safer than Android. This is due to the already known App Store's strict verification clause. The possibility of getting a couple or three viruses after downloading an application does not attract users at all. The Google Market has collected many different applications, including low-quality ones, while the App Store pre-moderates all new products. This shows the quality approach and level of monitoring of all products.

Conclusion: if your product is going to occupy the niches of both markets, try to make quality products for both operating systems.