The recent report by App Annie, revealed that the mobile apps revenue is well dominated by App Store, however when it comes to the number of downloads, Google’s Play tops the list by a fair margin.
It’s been a while since Android has been well and truly ahead of Apple in device sales. If we recall the launch of Blackberry Smartphones in the year 2002, it was one of the biggest achievements in the field of mobile application development history. Smartphones have certainly come a long way since their introduction to the market.
Android phone sales have sky rocketed in the past 5 years. With the increase in the number of Smartphone users, there has been a huge demand for applications and this has increased the scope for mobile application development services globally.
iOS and Android Application development industry has boomed in the last 5 years, presently there are over 20 billion software developers across the globe, and this number is expected to grow to 25 billion by the year 2020. In spite of the fact that Android dominates the global Smartphone market share with 84.1% and with over 2.2 billion apps available on Google Play Store, it is pretty surprising that app developers and companies prefer to launch their apps on the iOS platform first. There are several reasons why companies prefer the iOS platform. In this article I will be highlighting a few of the main reasons why Apple is a more preferred platform.
Quality over Quantity
The main reason why iOS a more preferred platform in comparison to Android is mainly because of its quality. Apple has always emphasized on quality rather than quantity. As per stats, Apple has over 15 million apps available on the App Store. iOS application development has unmatched qualities and its truly because Apple is very particular when it comes to development protocols/guidelines. Apple exercises full control on both its hardware and the Operating System. When an App is submitted on the App Store, it goes through a complete process where it is strictly scrutinized before being allowed on the Apple store. Majority of the apps on the App store are of very high quality in terms of UI, UX and functionality.
On the contrary, Android is not very popular when it comes to quality and stability. Android has always been more focused on quantity rather than quality. There are a huge number of apps on the Android store which are simply crap. I am not a huge fan of Apple but honestly Android needs to work on integrating quality in the apps.
Higher app revenue
Another important aspect of iOS apps is their ability to generate revenue. Apple has been targeting the premium Smartphone markets, especially customers with higher income. In order to enhance user experience, customers are willing to spend more money for tools and services related to them. Due to this reason, mobile app development companies and developers are more inclined towards developing iOS apps instead of Android. They have learned that that monetizing the iOS app will enable them achieve good returns. Apple believes in attracting new customers and retaining the existing one, which is certainly the key to increasing sales.
Lesser bugs
One of the biggest advantages that iOS offers are bug freeness. The main reason for this is because of the limited number of devices that is has to deal with. Another important factor is the strict guidelines that Apple follows when it comes to mobile app development. Apple believes in lesser code writing for its apps. Since, the developers write lesser code, therefore there are lesser bugs that need to be fixed.
Developer Tools
It is a known fact that Apple provides much better and enhanced developer tools for mobile application development as compared to its Android counterpart. The Apple developer tools are stable and provide faster emulators.
Lesser Complexities
iOS provides better UI/UX because of its easier frameworks. It again comes to reason that Apple has to deal with only a limited number of devices. This gives developers a good chance to focus on integrating and making user’s experience a great one. It is a common observation that iPhone apps are less complex and very easy to use, thus making them more desirable to users.
