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> I’ve talked to lots of Android and iOS teams, and they say if they implement the same app on both platforms, the development time is roughly the same, and tes

> I’ve talked to lots of Android and iOS teams, and they say if they implement the same app on both platforms, the development time is roughly the same, and testing on Android is mostly a non-issue, as you can do it on your computer in emulators. Interesting. I've heard just the opposite, in fact: that iOS is significantly faster to develop on and that testing is a nightmare that must be done manually on-device. I would have liked the author to back this claim up with more than just anecdotes.

rsynnott 12y ago
I think a lot of this comes down to exactly what you're doing. For instance, if you're doing networking, getting fancy with the camera, or doing even slightly low-level OpenGL stuff, Android's likely to be more painful, especially in terms of testing, and old-version quirks. Fun minor example; before Android 4.3 or so (and only about 25% of Android users are on >=4.3), if, using the default HTTP library, you make a request to a server that uses HTTP compression, and the request returns a successful no-content result, like 204, that'll trigger a null pointer exception in the guts of the HTTP library. There are lots of these quirks; by themselves they're minor, but they build up. With things like the camera, it's worse, as vendor customisation comes into play.
- BugBrother 12y ago
  But if you're not doing anything fancy, wouldn't a JavaScript variant be better? [E.g. potentially X-platform.]
  - rsynnott 12y ago
    I've yet to use a mobile web app (or phonegap thing, etc) which didn't make me want to tear my hair out. I mean, it may be possible to make such a thing, but people generally don't.
josephlord 12y ago
Both could be completely true for different scenarios. Maybe for many apps they are similar but for some that use phone features such as Bluetooth it might be much harder on Android. It might also depend on the level of polish you require, satisfactory apps may be as easy on both but to avoid any glitches you may need to do a lot of testing.
wesselkooyman 12y ago
Hi! I'll give you a specific anecdote. One of our clients, Sensorly, is a crowd sourced mobile coverage map maker. On iOS their life is hell, because Apple doesn't expose the raw network strength and other data they need. I realize that that's not the average app, of course. Their iOS dev time much higher, for much less result.
mamcx 12y ago
What kind of devs are they? The android experience is horrible. I'm doing a "call a taxi" app rigth now and 1)I can't target modern android 2)The reference android phone is terrible terrible terrible terrible * 1000 3) I'm the iOS guy! only ME and I finish my task faster than the android group. (yep, I use the android device because I need to test the communication between both platforms).

rsynnott 12y ago

I think a lot of this comes down to exactly what you're doing. For instance, if you're doing networking, getting fancy with the camera, or doing even slightly low-level OpenGL stuff, Android's likely to be more painful, especially in terms of testing, and old-version quirks. Fun minor example; before Android 4.3 or so (and only about 25% of Android users are on >=4.3), if, using the default HTTP library, you make a request to a server that uses HTTP compression, and the request returns a successful no-content result, like 204, that'll trigger a null pointer exception in the guts of the HTTP library. There are lots of these quirks; by themselves they're minor, but they build up. With things like the camera, it's worse, as vendor customisation comes into play.

BugBrother 12y ago
But if you're not doing anything fancy, wouldn't a JavaScript variant be better? [E.g. potentially X-platform.]
- rsynnott 12y ago
  I've yet to use a mobile web app (or phonegap thing, etc) which didn't make me want to tear my hair out. I mean, it may be possible to make such a thing, but people generally don't.

josephlord 12y ago

Both could be completely true for different scenarios. Maybe for many apps they are similar but for some that use phone features such as Bluetooth it might be much harder on Android. It might also depend on the level of polish you require, satisfactory apps may be as easy on both but to avoid any glitches you may need to do a lot of testing.

wesselkooyman 12y ago

Hi! I'll give you a specific anecdote. One of our clients, Sensorly, is a crowd sourced mobile coverage map maker. On iOS their life is hell, because Apple doesn't expose the raw network strength and other data they need. I realize that that's not the average app, of course. Their iOS dev time much higher, for much less result.

mamcx 12y ago

What kind of devs are they? The android experience is horrible. I'm doing a "call a taxi" app rigth now and 1)I can't target modern android 2)The reference android phone is terrible terrible terrible terrible * 1000 3) I'm the iOS guy! only ME and I finish my task faster than the android group. (yep, I use the android device because I need to test the communication between both platforms).