5 ms·

Very interesting to see how much more popular Android is for hackathons. I imagine it's because you don't need a dev account, easy to deploy to a device/share

by habosa 11y ago

Very interesting to see how much more popular Android is for hackathons. I imagine it's because you don't need a dev account, easy to deploy to a device/share APKs, and the APIs have fewer limits. But if you ask this same survey of actual startups, most go iOS first for the $$$.

gotrecruit 11y ago
and you don't need a mac to develop android apps, so for most people android app is essentially free.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- sliverstorm 11y ago
  This has already blocked me. Developed an android app, was asked by several friends to port it to Apple, didn't want to shell out for a Mac. Even the Minis, a popular "get a Mac platform for cheap" choice, are several hundred dollars used.
  - scholia 11y ago
    The latest Mac Mini (2014) I saw had soldered RAM and a slow processor, so older used versions should be even more popular....
  - spathi_fwiffo 11y ago
    I've heard of people running MacOS and XCode from VirtualBox/QEMU/etc. I guess you would have to pay for the Mac OS software to install on the VM, but it would save you on hardware costs.
    - arfar 11y ago
      I didn't think that the OS X license let you run it anywhere other than Apple hardware. That's just something I've heard though, never actually investigated it.
      - spathi_fwiffo 11y ago
        I doubt this is true. I know that historically, Apple users were limited to Apple hardware by the nature of the architecture. However, Apple switched to using the same hardware as the rest of the PC world. Another option would be to make a Hackintosh, actually; if you have a sufficiently powerful spare machine; this would also need the OS software, so virtualizing is probably just as easy.
peapicker 11y ago
I was surprised Android wasn't a higher percentage... Look at it this way: 78% of the current smartphone market is Android, 18% is iOS. [1] (4.3:1 in favor of Android) According to the article, 38% of hackathon devs are interested in Android dev, and 22% are interested in iOS Dev. (1.72:1 in favor of Android) From this perspective, desire to develop for iOS is MUCH higher than market representation, meaning that (as I read the numbers) comparatively, Android appears to be the weaker choice -- and that amongst hackathon developers, iOS is far over-represented compared to the market as a whole, as I assume most at these events use their own devices. [1] http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp
- broodbucket 11y ago
  I'd assume the missing link is the percentage of users of each platform that are willing to pay for apps. Given iOS has a higher entry cost, it'd make sense that more iOS users would pay for stuff.
  - saurik 11y ago
    People at this kind of hackathon aren't caring as much about that as they are "what kind of hardware do I have and how easy will it be to get this to work".
  - briandear 11y ago
    That's a fact. Android users are cheap when it comes to paid apps.
- habosa 11y ago
  The 78% is worldwide, and a lot of Android's share is in countries where price is king (Android devices start at $50 unlocked). In the US Android has ~50% of the market and I imagine the US has the majority of the world's hackathons (esp. ones that would be represented in this survey).
ceejayoz 11y ago
> I imagine it's because you don't need a dev account This is finally fixed in Xcode 7. https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/LaunchingYourApponDevices/LaunchingYourApponDevices.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40012582-CH27-SW3 https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documenta...
akhilcacharya 11y ago
Not to mention you need a Mac for iOS development. If your entire team (or at least all of the mobile developers on your team) don't have Macs, you're limited to Android.
- petercooper 11y ago
  Only commenting as I've been sniffing around Visual Studio 2015 tonight and they keep boasting you can develop fully native iOS apps in it now: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/features/mobile-app-development-vs.aspx https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/features/mobile-app-devel...
  - jasonlotito 11y ago
    You still need a Mac to compile.
liampronan 11y ago
I was also thinking that many CS students learn Java as part of their degree (though I don't have stats handy), so Android is a natural extension there.
- nealrs 11y ago
  my intro cs class @ cmu was in java back in 2001 -- but now they teach python (major win imo)
morgante 11y ago
Having been to many hackathons, I'd say that far and away the most likely reason for this is that Java is taught in most CS curriculums. Hence students can come in and make an Android app over the weekend, whereas building an iOS app would require learning a whole new language. I bet if you looked at winning hacks the Android skew would be much less defined (as winning hacks are usually developed by people who learn outside of class and have prior experience with the platform).

by habosa 11y ago

gotrecruit 11y ago

and you don't need a mac to develop android apps, so for most people android app is essentially free.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
sliverstorm 11y ago
This has already blocked me. Developed an android app, was asked by several friends to port it to Apple, didn't want to shell out for a Mac. Even the Minis, a popular "get a Mac platform for cheap" choice, are several hundred dollars used.
- scholia 11y ago
  The latest Mac Mini (2014) I saw had soldered RAM and a slow processor, so older used versions should be even more popular....
- spathi_fwiffo 11y ago
  I've heard of people running MacOS and XCode from VirtualBox/QEMU/etc. I guess you would have to pay for the Mac OS software to install on the VM, but it would save you on hardware costs.
  - arfar 11y ago
    I didn't think that the OS X license let you run it anywhere other than Apple hardware. That's just something I've heard though, never actually investigated it.
    - spathi_fwiffo 11y ago
      I doubt this is true. I know that historically, Apple users were limited to Apple hardware by the nature of the architecture. However, Apple switched to using the same hardware as the rest of the PC world. Another option would be to make a Hackintosh, actually; if you have a sufficiently powerful spare machine; this would also need the OS software, so virtualizing is probably just as easy.

peapicker 11y ago

I was surprised Android wasn't a higher percentage... Look at it this way: 78% of the current smartphone market is Android, 18% is iOS. [1] (4.3:1 in favor of Android) According to the article, 38% of hackathon devs are interested in Android dev, and 22% are interested in iOS Dev. (1.72:1 in favor of Android) From this perspective, desire to develop for iOS is MUCH higher than market representation, meaning that (as I read the numbers) comparatively, Android appears to be the weaker choice -- and that amongst hackathon developers, iOS is far over-represented compared to the market as a whole, as I assume most at these events use their own devices. [1] http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp

broodbucket 11y ago
I'd assume the missing link is the percentage of users of each platform that are willing to pay for apps. Given iOS has a higher entry cost, it'd make sense that more iOS users would pay for stuff.
- saurik 11y ago
  People at this kind of hackathon aren't caring as much about that as they are "what kind of hardware do I have and how easy will it be to get this to work".
- briandear 11y ago
  That's a fact. Android users are cheap when it comes to paid apps.
habosa 11y ago
The 78% is worldwide, and a lot of Android's share is in countries where price is king (Android devices start at $50 unlocked). In the US Android has ~50% of the market and I imagine the US has the majority of the world's hackathons (esp. ones that would be represented in this survey).

ceejayoz 11y ago

> I imagine it's because you don't need a dev account This is finally fixed in Xcode 7. https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/LaunchingYourApponDevices/LaunchingYourApponDevices.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40012582-CH27-SW3 https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documenta...

akhilcacharya 11y ago

Not to mention you need a Mac for iOS development. If your entire team (or at least all of the mobile developers on your team) don't have Macs, you're limited to Android.

petercooper 11y ago
Only commenting as I've been sniffing around Visual Studio 2015 tonight and they keep boasting you can develop fully native iOS apps in it now: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/features/mobile-app-development-vs.aspx https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/features/mobile-app-devel...
- jasonlotito 11y ago
  You still need a Mac to compile.

liampronan 11y ago

I was also thinking that many CS students learn Java as part of their degree (though I don't have stats handy), so Android is a natural extension there.

nealrs 11y ago
my intro cs class @ cmu was in java back in 2001 -- but now they teach python (major win imo)

morgante 11y ago

Having been to many hackathons, I'd say that far and away the most likely reason for this is that Java is taught in most CS curriculums. Hence students can come in and make an Android app over the weekend, whereas building an iOS app would require learning a whole new language. I bet if you looked at winning hacks the Android skew would be much less defined (as winning hacks are usually developed by people who learn outside of class and have prior experience with the platform).