7 ms·

Most developers are coding for Google's Android instead of Apple's IOS

62 points by bakbak 15y ago

martingordon 15y ago
Haven't read it yet, but here's a direct link to the report: http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile-Developer_Economics_2011.pdf http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile... FYI for those on mobile/capped access, it comes in at 15 MB.
gte910h 15y ago
That's very likely a simple function of cost: You can't do iOS programming without the (relatively expensive) mac hardware. Also, the actual report is here: http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile-Developer_Economics_2011.pdf http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile... Other points from the (CC/BY) report: Platform revenue potential. Not all platforms are born with equal revenue potential. Our research revealed large discrepancies across platforms in terms of the revenues applications are bringing to developers. iOS topped the chart, making 3.3x more money per app than Symbian developers followed by Java ME (2.7x) and BlackBerry (2.4x). Android (1.7x), mobile web (1.6x) were the weakest performing platforms in terms of revenue per app and only ahead of Symbian (1.0). .... App store fragmentation is an under-hyped challenge for developers. Each of the fifty-plus app stores available has its own developer sign-up, app submission process, artwork and paperwork requirements, app certification and approval criteria, revenue model options, payment terms, taxation and settlement terms. The marginal cost of distributing an application through one more app store is significant, contrary to popular perception. .... Platform priorities For companies going mobile, platform priorities are mixed, but the core challenge is common – market penetration and reach across the customer base. Organisations developing B2C apps (targeted at consumers) are extending their offering first Apple and then to Android, to mobile web, to BlackBerry and finally to Windows Phone 7. For B2B apps (applications paid by the corporate IT manager or CIO), HTML is already the platform of choice- not just for deployment on mobile web browsers, but also by converting HTML and JavaScript into native iPhone and Android apps using tools from companies such as Appcelerator, PhoneGap, RhoMobile and Sencha.
- headhuntermdk 15y ago
  Like most people can't afford to buy a mac mini for development..
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    You're sure your app will make at least $700 to recoup those costs? I like your optimism.
    - 2muchcoffeeman 15y ago
      A half decent app with only thousands of users might get that back in maybe 6 months. I know I did and I wrote a very niche app and did no promotion what so ever. I have not made much on my app but it has paid for a couple of gadgets so far and I am still making a (very) little bit every month.
      - gte910h 15y ago
        Lots of people aren't writing that. They don't have the skills to write that on Android either. But they're still counted in that survey as "Android Developers", yielding that HN title.
    - headhuntermdk 15y ago
      Maybe not, but my cost of materials are rolled into cost of the development I do for my clients.
      - gte910h 15y ago
        Lots of people aren't writing apps for third parties. As a third party dev myself, it's significantly easier to justify costs (even to people like my wife) than if I did self-published apps that were hobbling along
        headhuntermdk 15y ago
avgarrison 15y ago
"...67 per cent of developers code for Android..." I'm a little confused. 67% of all developers? 67% of mobile developers?
- mikk0j 15y ago
  Should be of "mobile developers", upon reading the article. But nonetheless, the numbers are a bit pointless since they don't indicate overlap (gosh, you can develop both iOS and Android?). What would be interesting is to know the share of "original" development (not "just" porting - but apologies for the generalization) on platforms, or if it is done multi-platform from the start.
  - yread 15y ago
    Yeah, I guess you could read it as "33% of mobile developers completely ignore Andriod"
headhuntermdk 15y ago
"Entitled Developer Economics 2011, the study shows that 67 per cent of developers code for Android, up from 59 per cent in 2010. IOS lags behind at 59 per cent, but that's also up from 50 per cent last year, most likely due to Apple's introduction of the iPad." Last time I checked 67% + 59% != 100%
- avgarrison 15y ago
  Well, I suppose developers could develop for more than one platform.
  - nhebb 15y ago
    Which of course means that the "instead of" in the title is misleading. I mean, 67% vs 59% warrants a "most" and "instead of"? What a crap article.
  - headhuntermdk 15y ago
    The title didn't reflect that hence my snakiness about the numbers
napierzaza 15y ago
Well that might be all well and good if you want to be a programmer with the rest of the herd. But the most profitable app store is the Apple store. Personally I'm happy that there aren't so many Objective C programmers around.
- avgarrison 15y ago
  I've been able to get by in Apple's app store with minimal knowledge of Objective C and a massive usage of C++. Thank God for *.mm files!
gamble 15y ago
How much credibility does this have? BlueVia is sells a product for developers that targets Android and not iOS, while VisionMobile is a market analysis company they presumably paid to produce this study. I'd never heard of either before, and it sounds like they have a substantial financial interest in presenting Android as more interesting to developers.
- TomOfTTB 15y ago
  I agree with everything you say but I wanted to add one thing. I'm so sick of these surveys being published without any methodology information. Methodology can very easily impact a survey. We see it all the time in political surveys where they seem to indicate something until you look deeper and find their sample was skewed towards a political persuasion. I mean, does anyone doubt that Open vs. Proprietary can be just as political as Democrat vs Republican in tech circles?
  - 9999 15y ago
    I agree completely. At the least they could have included a link to the source.
Hisoka 15y ago
Personally, I am building an app for the iPhone first because of public perception and marketing. It seems more people write and review iPhone apps versus Android apps - you can just tell when they start Android review articles with a tone of appeasement ie. "Ok, finally here's something for all you Android users.." When someone finds your app and sees there's an iPhone version but no Android version, their normal reaction is: "That's understandable, Android is coming next, right?". If you have an Android version but no iPhone, their reaction will probably be "Hmm.. wait, that makes little sense...". It's just a side effect of iPhone being the first one to come up with app store.
- bxr 15y ago
  The attitude towards android in general is dismissive. You need look no further than this HN thread. Imagine how different the posts would be if the numbers had broken in the other direction, in the iPhone's favor.
jlgosse 15y ago
I enjoy how he rambles on about how Java is dying, and that it isn't secure, but earlier says that 67% of mobile developers are working on Android applications.
- rlmw 15y ago
  Indeed, I think the author needs to rephrase 'Java' as 'Java ME' for a lot of that.
gte910h 15y ago
On fragmentation: We were able to quantify that indeed Apple’s iOS is the platform with the least fragmentation (on average four versions per app), as has been widely noted from empirical evidence in the past. Apple manages fragmentation through two primary means: first, it has standardised the screen size and resolution for its handsets and tablets; and second, as an OEM and platform vendor, it has commercially streamlined the means by which most iPhone or iPad users are upgraded to the latest OS version. In contrast, our research indicates that Android developers must create six versions of their apps on average, which is on par with mobile web apps. The stark difference in fragmentation across Apple and Android devices is also evident amongst the different platform versions in the installed base of devices. According to Google data released on May 2011, 25% of active Android handsets run on platform versions more than 18 months out of date. Meanwhile, according to app analytics firm Localytics, only 20% of existing Apple 3GS devices had not yet been upgraded, just two months after the introduction of iOS4. In other words, Apple devices have the youngest runtime age in the mobile industry
- theBobMcCormick 15y ago
  > In contrast, our research indicates that Android developers must create six versions of their apps on average. That part makes no sense to me. I've never seen a single app in the Android Market that has 6 different versions. And it would probably be obvious. The Market will hide apps that aren't compatible with your device, but each app still has to have a separate, unique name. The most versions of a single app I've been able to find is TouchDown, which has 3 versions: 1 for Android 1.x devices, 1 for Android 2.x devices, and 1 for MobileIron customers. The third version arguably would still exist even if there were only a single Android handset. http://www.appbrain.com/browse/dev/NitroDesk%2C+Inc http://www.appbrain.com/browse/dev/NitroDesk%2C+Inc. Anyone have a concrete example of an Android app with 6 versions in the Market?
  - gte910h 15y ago
    They're probably also counting the bastardized content pack thingy many people used instead of In-App purchase where you buy/download other items on the store for levels or whatnot.
cwp 15y ago
Misleading headline. It implies that >50% of developers are coding for Android exclusively, but that's not the case. It would be just as (in)accurate to say that "Most developers are coding for IOS."
wallflower 15y ago
The iPhone developers, the good ones (e.g. have been Featured in App Store) that I am fortunate to know personally, they're not even touching Android. Reasons: Unfamiliarity and leaving the comfort zone. iOS development is comfortable. When you do Android dev, you give up a lot of comfort for raw, unfettered access. It is a rule of thumb when you develop for Android that when you release you will get ANR (Application Not Responding) simply because of the fact that you can't test on more than a few actual devices. I get crash reports from the market site that I can't fathom how they even can happen (stuff like libraries that are statically linked not being found) And, as an primarily Android dev now, can you imagine giving up Core Data (for all its faults, the latest iOS 5 [redacted] makes it better), Interface Builder (ADT 11 is getting closer but still not close) and even stuff like Objective-C Categories?
megaduck 15y ago
I am amazed that we've got 56 comments on this thread, and nobody's brought up market share. Android has been beating the bejeezus out of iOS on unit sales for a while now, both in the U.S. and globally. Even more importantly, Android's growing at a faster rate. Developers will gravitate towards the platform with the most users. Period. This has happened time and time again over the past 30 years. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, Google... There's a lot of nuance underneath the headline numbers, and certain communities (like HN) will be friendlier to iOS. However, in general I would expect Android to capture the bulk of developer attention going forward.
- headhuntermdk 15y ago
  Developers will gravitate to what makes them money. If it was marketshare then more developers would be writing apps for Symbian than for iOS or Android.
  - megaduck 15y ago
    Who says they haven't been? They certainly were in markets where Symbian was dominant. When I was in China (2008-2009), the developer support for Symbian was dramatically better than BlackBerry or iOS. Now that Android has exploded in that market, I expect most of those developers to migrate away from Symbian to Android if they haven't already. One thing to remember is that we're talking about the entire population of software developers. Certain demographics (like HN readers) will show up more heavily on certain platforms (like iOS). However, the general trends will always mirror marketshare.

62 points by bakbak 15y ago

Haven't read it yet, but here's a direct link to the report: http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile-Developer_Economics_2011.pdf http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile... FYI for those on mobile/capped access, it comes in at 15 MB.

gte910h 15y ago

That's very likely a simple function of cost: You can't do iOS programming without the (relatively expensive) mac hardware. Also, the actual report is here: http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile-Developer_Economics_2011.pdf http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile... Other points from the (CC/BY) report: Platform revenue potential. Not all platforms are born with equal revenue potential. Our research revealed large discrepancies across platforms in terms of the revenues applications are bringing to developers. iOS topped the chart, making 3.3x more money per app than Symbian developers followed by Java ME (2.7x) and BlackBerry (2.4x). Android (1.7x), mobile web (1.6x) were the weakest performing platforms in terms of revenue per app and only ahead of Symbian (1.0). .... App store fragmentation is an under-hyped challenge for developers. Each of the fifty-plus app stores available has its own developer sign-up, app submission process, artwork and paperwork requirements, app certification and approval criteria, revenue model options, payment terms, taxation and settlement terms. The marginal cost of distributing an application through one more app store is significant, contrary to popular perception. .... Platform priorities For companies going mobile, platform priorities are mixed, but the core challenge is common – market penetration and reach across the customer base. Organisations developing B2C apps (targeted at consumers) are extending their offering first Apple and then to Android, to mobile web, to BlackBerry and finally to Windows Phone 7. For B2B apps (applications paid by the corporate IT manager or CIO), HTML is already the platform of choice- not just for deployment on mobile web browsers, but also by converting HTML and JavaScript into native iPhone and Android apps using tools from companies such as Appcelerator, PhoneGap, RhoMobile and Sencha.

headhuntermdk 15y ago
Like most people can't afford to buy a mac mini for development..
- StavrosK 15y ago
  You're sure your app will make at least $700 to recoup those costs? I like your optimism.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 15y ago
    A half decent app with only thousands of users might get that back in maybe 6 months. I know I did and I wrote a very niche app and did no promotion what so ever. I have not made much on my app but it has paid for a couple of gadgets so far and I am still making a (very) little bit every month.
    - gte910h 15y ago
      Lots of people aren't writing that. They don't have the skills to write that on Android either. But they're still counted in that survey as "Android Developers", yielding that HN title.
  - headhuntermdk 15y ago
    Maybe not, but my cost of materials are rolled into cost of the development I do for my clients.
    - gte910h 15y ago
      Lots of people aren't writing apps for third parties. As a third party dev myself, it's significantly easier to justify costs (even to people like my wife) than if I did self-published apps that were hobbling along
      - headhuntermdk 15y ago

avgarrison 15y ago

"...67 per cent of developers code for Android..." I'm a little confused. 67% of all developers? 67% of mobile developers?

mikk0j 15y ago
Should be of "mobile developers", upon reading the article. But nonetheless, the numbers are a bit pointless since they don't indicate overlap (gosh, you can develop both iOS and Android?). What would be interesting is to know the share of "original" development (not "just" porting - but apologies for the generalization) on platforms, or if it is done multi-platform from the start.
- yread 15y ago
  Yeah, I guess you could read it as "33% of mobile developers completely ignore Andriod"

headhuntermdk 15y ago

"Entitled Developer Economics 2011, the study shows that 67 per cent of developers code for Android, up from 59 per cent in 2010. IOS lags behind at 59 per cent, but that's also up from 50 per cent last year, most likely due to Apple's introduction of the iPad." Last time I checked 67% + 59% != 100%

avgarrison 15y ago
Well, I suppose developers could develop for more than one platform.
- nhebb 15y ago
  Which of course means that the "instead of" in the title is misleading. I mean, 67% vs 59% warrants a "most" and "instead of"? What a crap article.
- headhuntermdk 15y ago
  The title didn't reflect that hence my snakiness about the numbers

napierzaza 15y ago

Well that might be all well and good if you want to be a programmer with the rest of the herd. But the most profitable app store is the Apple store. Personally I'm happy that there aren't so many Objective C programmers around.

avgarrison 15y ago
I've been able to get by in Apple's app store with minimal knowledge of Objective C and a massive usage of C++. Thank God for *.mm files!

gamble 15y ago

How much credibility does this have? BlueVia is sells a product for developers that targets Android and not iOS, while VisionMobile is a market analysis company they presumably paid to produce this study. I'd never heard of either before, and it sounds like they have a substantial financial interest in presenting Android as more interesting to developers.

TomOfTTB 15y ago
I agree with everything you say but I wanted to add one thing. I'm so sick of these surveys being published without any methodology information. Methodology can very easily impact a survey. We see it all the time in political surveys where they seem to indicate something until you look deeper and find their sample was skewed towards a political persuasion. I mean, does anyone doubt that Open vs. Proprietary can be just as political as Democrat vs Republican in tech circles?
- 9999 15y ago
  I agree completely. At the least they could have included a link to the source.

Hisoka 15y ago

Personally, I am building an app for the iPhone first because of public perception and marketing. It seems more people write and review iPhone apps versus Android apps - you can just tell when they start Android review articles with a tone of appeasement ie. "Ok, finally here's something for all you Android users.." When someone finds your app and sees there's an iPhone version but no Android version, their normal reaction is: "That's understandable, Android is coming next, right?". If you have an Android version but no iPhone, their reaction will probably be "Hmm.. wait, that makes little sense...". It's just a side effect of iPhone being the first one to come up with app store.

bxr 15y ago
The attitude towards android in general is dismissive. You need look no further than this HN thread. Imagine how different the posts would be if the numbers had broken in the other direction, in the iPhone's favor.

jlgosse 15y ago

I enjoy how he rambles on about how Java is dying, and that it isn't secure, but earlier says that 67% of mobile developers are working on Android applications.

rlmw 15y ago
Indeed, I think the author needs to rephrase 'Java' as 'Java ME' for a lot of that.

gte910h 15y ago

On fragmentation: We were able to quantify that indeed Apple’s iOS is the platform with the least fragmentation (on average four versions per app), as has been widely noted from empirical evidence in the past. Apple manages fragmentation through two primary means: first, it has standardised the screen size and resolution for its handsets and tablets; and second, as an OEM and platform vendor, it has commercially streamlined the means by which most iPhone or iPad users are upgraded to the latest OS version. In contrast, our research indicates that Android developers must create six versions of their apps on average, which is on par with mobile web apps. The stark difference in fragmentation across Apple and Android devices is also evident amongst the different platform versions in the installed base of devices. According to Google data released on May 2011, 25% of active Android handsets run on platform versions more than 18 months out of date. Meanwhile, according to app analytics firm Localytics, only 20% of existing Apple 3GS devices had not yet been upgraded, just two months after the introduction of iOS4. In other words, Apple devices have the youngest runtime age in the mobile industry

theBobMcCormick 15y ago
> In contrast, our research indicates that Android developers must create six versions of their apps on average. That part makes no sense to me. I've never seen a single app in the Android Market that has 6 different versions. And it would probably be obvious. The Market will hide apps that aren't compatible with your device, but each app still has to have a separate, unique name. The most versions of a single app I've been able to find is TouchDown, which has 3 versions: 1 for Android 1.x devices, 1 for Android 2.x devices, and 1 for MobileIron customers. The third version arguably would still exist even if there were only a single Android handset. http://www.appbrain.com/browse/dev/NitroDesk%2C+Inc http://www.appbrain.com/browse/dev/NitroDesk%2C+Inc. Anyone have a concrete example of an Android app with 6 versions in the Market?
- gte910h 15y ago
  They're probably also counting the bastardized content pack thingy many people used instead of In-App purchase where you buy/download other items on the store for levels or whatnot.

cwp 15y ago

Misleading headline. It implies that >50% of developers are coding for Android exclusively, but that's not the case. It would be just as (in)accurate to say that "Most developers are coding for IOS."

wallflower 15y ago

The iPhone developers, the good ones (e.g. have been Featured in App Store) that I am fortunate to know personally, they're not even touching Android. Reasons: Unfamiliarity and leaving the comfort zone. iOS development is comfortable. When you do Android dev, you give up a lot of comfort for raw, unfettered access. It is a rule of thumb when you develop for Android that when you release you will get ANR (Application Not Responding) simply because of the fact that you can't test on more than a few actual devices. I get crash reports from the market site that I can't fathom how they even can happen (stuff like libraries that are statically linked not being found) And, as an primarily Android dev now, can you imagine giving up Core Data (for all its faults, the latest iOS 5 [redacted] makes it better), Interface Builder (ADT 11 is getting closer but still not close) and even stuff like Objective-C Categories?

megaduck 15y ago

I am amazed that we've got 56 comments on this thread, and nobody's brought up market share. Android has been beating the bejeezus out of iOS on unit sales for a while now, both in the U.S. and globally. Even more importantly, Android's growing at a faster rate. Developers will gravitate towards the platform with the most users. Period. This has happened time and time again over the past 30 years. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, Google... There's a lot of nuance underneath the headline numbers, and certain communities (like HN) will be friendlier to iOS. However, in general I would expect Android to capture the bulk of developer attention going forward.

headhuntermdk 15y ago
Developers will gravitate to what makes them money. If it was marketshare then more developers would be writing apps for Symbian than for iOS or Android.
- megaduck 15y ago
  Who says they haven't been? They certainly were in markets where Symbian was dominant. When I was in China (2008-2009), the developer support for Symbian was dramatically better than BlackBerry or iOS. Now that Android has exploded in that market, I expect most of those developers to migrate away from Symbian to Android if they haven't already. One thing to remember is that we're talking about the entire population of software developers. Certain demographics (like HN readers) will show up more heavily on certain platforms (like iOS). However, the general trends will always mirror marketshare.