Do you know what you need to do once you decide that building an app is the ideal solution for dealing with a business problem or achieving growth? One of the first things that you need to determine is what platform you will be building the app for. Looking for an application development company and other things are of secondary importance. However, deciding the right platform for the app, you are going to build can be a tricky proposition.
Android and iOS own more than 95% of the mobile market share globally. The best thing to do is to build apps for both platforms. However, not every business can do that. There are different constraints at play, including a budget, resources, time, and others that don’t allow businesses to build apps for both the platforms. What you can do instead is develop an app for one of the platforms first and then do the same for the other platform a little later. You can see how one of the apps is performing and at the same time, reach a more stable footing yourself as a business before you decide on building an app for the other platform.
Both iOS and Android platforms come with their unique benefits. You need to study both the platforms and their benefits in detail before making a decision. Make sure that the platform you introduce first aligns well with your objectives. The setting the objectives that you want to achieve by building a mobile app is an integral part of the process. Give this task enough time before moving any further. Let us discuss some key difference between Android and iOS app development.
What is the difference between iOS and Android app development?
- Operating system: iOS and Android are the most commonly used operating systems today. Different Apple devices, including iPhones, MacBooks, iPads, iMacs, iPods, and others, run on iOS. Android, on the other hand, is primarily used in mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones. iOS is exclusively built for Apple products while Android is used by almost all the other mobile phone manufacturing company, such as Nokia, Samsung, and others. When you are considering operating systems, you need to make sure that you are checking the frequency updates of both the platforms. iOS updates announced once in a year at the Worldwide Development Conference. Android updates are announced every year at the Google I/O conference. If you hire iOS application development services, the team of developers that will be working on your project will only have to focus on the latest OS version. However, if you hire an Android app development company to build you an Android app, the developers working on the app will have to focus on all the previous versions as well.
- Complexity and development speed: There are there major factors that influence the complexity and development speed of a platform – complexity of the app, programming language specifics, and the different device the app is being built for. Let’s start with the complexity of Android coding. Developers that choose Java have to face certain challenges on the way. The programming language is very easy to work with. Developers starting with Java usually don’t find any difficulty in migrating to any other technology or tool later. All you need to when building an iOS app is to know how the latest iOS version works. Android development takes more time and effort because it needs developers to fix bugs on a variety of devices.
- Knowledge and tools required: There are a number of hardware options available when it comes to building an Android app. However, the same can’t be said about iOS app development. You need a macOS machine for this job. The programming languages that you need to be proficient in when building an iOS app are Swift or Objective-C. Swift is relatively new to the scene. However, it has gained huge popularity in the 5 or so years it has been around. But still, Objective-C is used to write a significant part of an iOS product. Developers with expertise in C and C++ will not find Objective-C too tough. Also, if you use Swift, the development process will both be seamless and fast. However, there is a disadvantage as well with Swift. There is a lot of difference between its two successive versions.
Which one to choose: iOS or Android app development?
You need to look at both technical and demographical aspects before choosing the right platform for building an app. We are listing down a few of those aspects that you need to compare for both the platformsto make the right decision:
- Number of users worldwide
- Average revenue generation
- Application downloads
- Total market share
- Development complexity, time, and cost
- Publishing process
- App testing
- Programming languages
Conclusion
Choosing the right platform for building an app can have a significant impact on your brand recognition and customer loyalty amongst other things. It will also help in improving your presence, widening the market share, and increasing customer engagement.
