Android Apps Vs iOS Apps – Comparing the mobile applications developed on the two biggest mobile operating systems

In today's world, people are smartphone obsessed to an extent that they remain stick to their devices round the clock. Even while eating, working or socialising with friends, our eyes are always gazing at the giant screen to check out new notifications from networking apps like facebook or messaging apps like whatsapp. With passing time, people are becoming more dependent on their mobile devices and as a result, mobile application development companies are seeing an exponential growth from recent years due to the unprecedented demand of having an app for every product/service. For almost everything from shopping to studying, gaming, finding a restaurant or planning a trip; we have multiple apps installed in our smartphones to make our day-to-day life easier and comfortable.

Sneak peek into Global Statistics and Industry Insights

While there are many types of mobile applications including Android Apps, iOS apps, Blackberry Apps and Windows Phone Apps, the two biggest players dominating the Mobile OS market are Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, regarded as the most desirable platforms for developing mobile apps all around the world. If we peep into the app download statistics 2010-2013: Apple VS Android as recorded from Whatech.com and some relevant data collected from different market research firms like Gartner, you’ll be surprised to know that during 2010-2011, the no. of iOS apps downloaded were high(~ 1.45 billion) as compared to Android apps(0.64 billion) while in June 2012, both Android and Apple recorded equal no. of application downloads(~ 3.3 billion). And after that point of time, the no. of Android application downloads kept on increasing exponentially leading Apple by the end of 2013 and now the current scenario is - more than 80% smartphones all over the world are running on Android OS. Also, out of 102 billion apps downloaded in 2013, close to 91% apps were free but still mobile apps development company across the globe, collectively managed to pull US $26 billion revenue amounting to a 44.4% increase on 2012’s US $18 billion.

iOS App Development Vs Android App Development

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Creating & Publishing Apps on the App Store – Android Vs iOS 

While Android apps are programmed using technologies like C, C++, Java etc; iOS apps are programmed using Objective-C. Also, Android is an open source platform which means that anyone can tweak the Android SDK by downloading the Android source code for free but on the contrary, iOS is not an open source platform. Not just android apps developers are free to create, deploy and distribute android apps for free but mobile phone users are also free to download Android apps from outside the official Google play store too. However, Google charges a very nominal onetime fee of $25 for developers to publish their apps on the official Play Store, the Android open source SDK is available for all popular platforms like Linux, Mac and PC. However, in case of iOS apps developers, one has to pay $99 per year to get access to the iOS SDK and the right to publish their created iOS apps in the Apple’s App Store. Moreover, the iOS SDK is only available for the Mac platform.

However, if you use app development platforms like Titanium, Appcelerator and PhoneGap that offer “code once run everywhere” feature, you'll be able to easily create apps on a platform and convert it into “native” code for both Android and iOS platforms.

The Bottomline: iOS App Development Vs Android App Development – Which one is the right platform to choose

Apart from overseas, Mobile apps development company in India also offer effective services in both Android App Development and iPhone App Development while producing the best technical outcomes within stipulated timeframes. While most of the mobile application developers prefer to develop apps for iOS before they develop for Android due to technical feasibilities, the bottomline is mobile app developers often get confused as to which platform will suit client’s business better. So, as an experienced mobile app developer from a reputed mobile apps development company, I decided to conclude this write up with a quick comparison while throwing light on the most important aspects that should be taken care of by android apps developers and iOS apps development company while creating mobile apps for any of the platforms.

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Android Growth Rate

1. Stability of the Apps and the mobile OS  As an experienced mobile apps development company, if we take into account the stability criteria in mobile app development; Android version 2.3, popularly known as Gingerbread reveals the highest total crash rate ~ 1.7% while other Android versions like KitKat, Jelly Bean and Ice Cream Sandwich have a crash rate of about 0.7%. Some other insights are listed below.

• If we compare Phone versions and Tablet versions of both Android and iOS, tablet versions are less stable than the phone versions.

• Crash rates for mobile apps vary according to the category of the app being created like — Gaming mobile apps are most likely to crash (~4.4% crash rate) while e-commerce carts and shopping apps have the lowest crash rate (~0.4%) as compared to other categories.

• iOS version 7.1 has a crash rate of 1.6% while crash rates for iOS 7.0 and iOS 5 are nearly 2.1% and 2.5% respectively.

• If we look at tablets, many apps are specifically designed for the iPad while Android tablet apps are scaled up versions of Android smartphone apps.

As an example, let me share the example of the popular Instagram app. You might not be aware of the fact that this app started with iOS while its Android counterpart (Android App) was created and launched much later.

2. Massive app ecosystem  While popular smartphone apps are usually available for both the platforms, iOS apps have a distinct advantage when it comes to creating tablet apps as compared to the Android apps.

3. Facebook and Twitter Integration – Winner iOS  For apps using iOS platform, it is much easier to post updates and share on social networks because these platforms are deeply integrated with iOS as compared to Android.

4. Interface Customization – Winner iOS  As an iOS apps development company, we know that iOS apps offer limited customization options for the home screens while allowing only the row icons on the apps

5. User Experience – Winner Android  Android apps are highly customizable when it comes to user experience. From home screen icons to widgets, everything can be easily customized in Android as compared to iOS. Apps that can emulate older apps or apps like SwiftKey that can modify the whole Android smartphone keyboard signify that if you’re taking user experience into account, Android Apps would me more feasible technically. Also, Apple offers many restrictions as compared to minimal restrictions by Google when it comes to launching apps on the app store. Moreover, one can also choose to install Android apps apart from the official Google Play store while that’s not the case with iOS apps.

With all these factors in mind, one can easily decide which platform is right according to the type of business their clients are involved in. After all, it’s the work of mobile apps development company to suggest the best platform to their clients like we do here at Dean Infotech – the best iOS apps development company that clients prefer when it comes to mobile app development. Besides iphone app developers, we also have experienced team of skilled Android apps developers who’ve created numerous Android apps successfully.   

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