5 ms·

So why not develop your app for Android first (Dark Sky isn't available on Android)? I'm starting to see this too many times. Developers developing for Apple fi

So why not develop your app for Android first (Dark Sky isn't available on Android)? I'm starting to see this too many times. Developers developing for Apple first, and then complaining about how badly Apple treats them. Maybe if iOS wasn't the default platform for all the hipster developers, Apple would start giving a damn about small developers.

noir_lord 12y ago
I've never owned an Apple device (and I'm not a huge fan of the company). That said if I had to develop a phone application for my company tomorrow I'd develop for iOS first and Android second. There are good reasons for picking either platform but Apple has a single big chunk of the market which simplifies development and testing (Android has gotten better at this). > Maybe if iOS wasn't the default platform for all the hipster developers, Apple would start giving a damn about small developers. Nothing in this article mentioned anything about hipster developers no implied it, so apart from making you look a tad silly I'm not sure what the point of that bit was. In addition not all small developers are hipster developers which seemed to be the implication. Companies always provide better service to those customers who earn them the most revenue, this is not something new, try getting an engineer at Google to explain why they broke imap again if you have a dozen people using it then try if you have 10,000. In fact prioritising such stuff by revenue is an entirely rational viewpoint when you have less than infinite resources.
kevinh 12y ago
Even with Apple-related headaches, developing for iOS is far simpler than developing for Android. You don't have to worry with making your application compatible with thirty different version/device combinations—more like eight. Additionally, iOS development is more profitable than Android development, despite having a lower userbase. Your use of the word hipster is unclear. Does that word even have a meaningful definition anymore?
- general_failure 12y ago
  While I agree that parent used some words like hipster 'poorly', I completely disagree with your assessment of iOS and Android development. What you said is just pure FUD. Both platforms have their share of problems and neither of them is 'simpler' or 'harder'. It just the way it is.
- dannyr 12y ago
  Here we go again. What apps have you developed on Android lately? Or your opinion is just based on what you read on the internet?
  - k-mcgrady 12y ago
    I have developed for both recently. Developing for iOS is significantly more simple. I found trying to support many screen sizes on Android a nightmare. Also doing something simple like letting my app take a photo, save it, and display it was unnecessarily complicated.
  - kevinh 12y ago
    I've worked on an applications on iOS and Android with over a million downloads each. I found that creating and maintaining applications in iOS was significiantly easier than on Android. While I have run into some Apple bugs, it's overshadowed by the dances I have to do to get Android working everywhere.
- rubinelli 12y ago
  You don't have to support all the way back to 2.2 if it's too much trouble given your resources. Designing for 4.0+ will already give you more than 80% of the market, [1] and the 20% that you are excluding are the most likely to be underpowered and cause 80% of the device-specific glitches you would find in the wild. [1] https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
Iftheshoefits 12y ago
Let me be clear about where I'm coming from by stating my (extremely unpopular) opinion of Apple here: My view is that Apple is a hybrid marketing/hardware company that sells a kind of tech faux haut couture. I'm not a fan of Apple. That being said, I absolutely will deploy to iOS before Android, because that is where the market and money is. Android markets to a broad swath of people, a huge of segment of which consists of lower socioeconomic classes, and the conversion rate for purchases is lower (my experience) for the same effort (I actually find developing for Android to be slightly easier than iOS, in spite of the unfortunate choice of Java as the language, but the fragmentation issues others might throw at you by way of countering your argument are largely irrelevant for the kinds of apps I'm interested in producing). Apple product users are generally in a higher socioeconomic class and generally are more willing to part with their dollar. It just makes business sense to target that first to get revenue, then target Android to extract value.
lnanek2 12y ago
In the US, at least, iOS apps still make more money.
- Touche 12y ago
  But neither really makes any money for the vast majority of developers. At least not from app sales. And if you were to divide it between games and non-games the difference would be even larger. The ship has long since sailed for making money by selling an app on an app store. Might as well play the lottery, same chances.
- r00fus 12y ago
  Is there any market where Android apps make more money than iOS apps?
Touche 12y ago
Because the VCs who fund them all use iPhones. EDIT: Don't mind downvotes, but please explain. I think this is really a huge part of the reason.

noir_lord 12y ago

I've never owned an Apple device (and I'm not a huge fan of the company). That said if I had to develop a phone application for my company tomorrow I'd develop for iOS first and Android second. There are good reasons for picking either platform but Apple has a single big chunk of the market which simplifies development and testing (Android has gotten better at this). > Maybe if iOS wasn't the default platform for all the hipster developers, Apple would start giving a damn about small developers. Nothing in this article mentioned anything about hipster developers no implied it, so apart from making you look a tad silly I'm not sure what the point of that bit was. In addition not all small developers are hipster developers which seemed to be the implication. Companies always provide better service to those customers who earn them the most revenue, this is not something new, try getting an engineer at Google to explain why they broke imap again if you have a dozen people using it then try if you have 10,000. In fact prioritising such stuff by revenue is an entirely rational viewpoint when you have less than infinite resources.

kevinh 12y ago

Even with Apple-related headaches, developing for iOS is far simpler than developing for Android. You don't have to worry with making your application compatible with thirty different version/device combinations—more like eight. Additionally, iOS development is more profitable than Android development, despite having a lower userbase. Your use of the word hipster is unclear. Does that word even have a meaningful definition anymore?

general_failure 12y ago
While I agree that parent used some words like hipster 'poorly', I completely disagree with your assessment of iOS and Android development. What you said is just pure FUD. Both platforms have their share of problems and neither of them is 'simpler' or 'harder'. It just the way it is.
dannyr 12y ago
Here we go again. What apps have you developed on Android lately? Or your opinion is just based on what you read on the internet?
- k-mcgrady 12y ago
  I have developed for both recently. Developing for iOS is significantly more simple. I found trying to support many screen sizes on Android a nightmare. Also doing something simple like letting my app take a photo, save it, and display it was unnecessarily complicated.
- kevinh 12y ago
  I've worked on an applications on iOS and Android with over a million downloads each. I found that creating and maintaining applications in iOS was significiantly easier than on Android. While I have run into some Apple bugs, it's overshadowed by the dances I have to do to get Android working everywhere.
rubinelli 12y ago
You don't have to support all the way back to 2.2 if it's too much trouble given your resources. Designing for 4.0+ will already give you more than 80% of the market, [1] and the 20% that you are excluding are the most likely to be underpowered and cause 80% of the device-specific glitches you would find in the wild. [1] https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html

Iftheshoefits 12y ago

Let me be clear about where I'm coming from by stating my (extremely unpopular) opinion of Apple here: My view is that Apple is a hybrid marketing/hardware company that sells a kind of tech faux haut couture. I'm not a fan of Apple. That being said, I absolutely will deploy to iOS before Android, because that is where the market and money is. Android markets to a broad swath of people, a huge of segment of which consists of lower socioeconomic classes, and the conversion rate for purchases is lower (my experience) for the same effort (I actually find developing for Android to be slightly easier than iOS, in spite of the unfortunate choice of Java as the language, but the fragmentation issues others might throw at you by way of countering your argument are largely irrelevant for the kinds of apps I'm interested in producing). Apple product users are generally in a higher socioeconomic class and generally are more willing to part with their dollar. It just makes business sense to target that first to get revenue, then target Android to extract value.

lnanek2 12y ago

In the US, at least, iOS apps still make more money.

Touche 12y ago
But neither really makes any money for the vast majority of developers. At least not from app sales. And if you were to divide it between games and non-games the difference would be even larger. The ship has long since sailed for making money by selling an app on an app store. Might as well play the lottery, same chances.
r00fus 12y ago
Is there any market where Android apps make more money than iOS apps?

Touche 12y ago

Because the VCs who fund them all use iPhones. EDIT: Don't mind downvotes, but please explain. I think this is really a huge part of the reason.