

Most developers are coding for Google's Android instead of Apple's IOS - bakbak
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2077195/developers-coding-googles-android-instead-apples-ios

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gte910h
That's very likely a simple function of cost: You can't do iOS programming
without the (relatively expensive) mac hardware.

Also, the actual report is here:

[http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile...](http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile-
Developer_Economics_2011.pdf)

Other points from the (CC/BY) report:

Platform revenue potential. Not all platforms are born with equal revenue
potential. Our research revealed large discrepancies across platforms in terms
of the revenues applications are bringing to developers. iOS topped the chart,
making 3.3x more money per app than Symbian developers followed by Java ME
(2.7x) and BlackBerry (2.4x). Android (1.7x), mobile web (1.6x) were the
weakest performing platforms in terms of revenue per app and only ahead of
Symbian (1.0).

....

App store fragmentation is an under-hyped challenge for developers. Each of
the fifty-plus app stores available has its own developer sign-up, app
submission process, artwork and paperwork requirements, app certification and
approval criteria, revenue model options, payment terms, taxation and
settlement terms. The marginal cost of distributing an application through one
more app store is significant, contrary to popular perception.

....

Platform priorities For companies going mobile, platform priorities are mixed,
but the core challenge is common – market penetration and reach across the
customer base. Organisations developing B2C apps (targeted at consumers) are
extending their offering first Apple and then to Android, to mobile web, to
BlackBerry and finally to Windows Phone 7. For B2B apps (applications paid by
the corporate IT manager or CIO), HTML is already the platform of choice- not
just for deployment on mobile web browsers, but also by converting HTML and
JavaScript into native iPhone and Android apps using tools from companies such
as Appcelerator, PhoneGap, RhoMobile and Sencha.

~~~
headhuntermdk
Like most people can't afford to buy a mac mini for development..

~~~
gte910h
Have you ever tried to compile Xcode samples on a MacMini? I've had clients
who do. White Macbooks (1k) are passable, but MBA is pretty much the real
bottom line for any day to day development

Also, remember we're talking _GLOBALLY_. What's affordable to you may not be
to random Indian programmer 7

2 things that make me think cost is the issue:

>Developer-market balance. Android is the one and only platform that is
trilaterally adopted by developers across all three major continents active in
application development - Europe, North America and Asia. On all other
platforms, there is an imbalance of developer supply and market demand across
the globe. iOS is lagging in developer mindshare in Asia while BlackBerry
developers are almost completely lacking in Europe. The traditional sweet spot
for Java developers has moved out of Europe to emerging markets, with 42% more
respondents coming from Asia, Africa and South America. Flash Lite has weak
supply in South East Asia where the platform can deliver best-in-class
experiences on mass-market phones

And the fact you're highly likely to make little more than 700 back:

> In the gold rush to the applications economy, not everyone is making money.
> About a third of respondents make less than $1,000 USD per application in
> total, which is loss-making given that an application often takes months to
> develop

~~~
lurch_mojoff
> Have you ever tried to compile Xcode samples on a MacMini?

Yes, I have been doing it on a four year old, Core Duo one for the whole three
years since the iOS SDK became available and have had zero compilation
performance issues. Keep in mind that the vast majority of iOS applications
are laughably small compared to desktop apps.

I'm not disputing that a Mini is still too costly for many, but I think it is
unfair to exclude it as development machine.

~~~
gte910h
I'm a fulltime iOS developer. Standing there waiting for it to compile was a
considerable length affair (multiple minutes)

2-screen iPhone apps with no media might compile quick enough, but development
of the type of apps which make money that would be a huge productivity suck.

~~~
jodrellblank
So invest the money first, or put up with it and use the proceeds to buy
something better.

"I don't have the money to spend so making money is faster and easier" is not
a problem unique to iOS development.

------
gamble
How much credibility does this have? BlueVia is sells a product for developers
that targets Android and not iOS, while VisionMobile is a market analysis
company they presumably paid to produce this study. I'd never heard of either
before, and it sounds like they have a substantial financial interest in
presenting Android as more interesting to developers.

~~~
TomOfTTB
I agree with everything you say but I wanted to add one thing. I'm so sick of
these surveys being published without any methodology information. Methodology
can very easily impact a survey. We see it all the time in political surveys
where they seem to indicate something until you look deeper and find their
sample was skewed towards a political persuasion.

I mean, does anyone doubt that Open vs. Proprietary can be just as political
as Democrat vs Republican in tech circles?

~~~
9999
I agree completely. At the least they could have included a link to the
source.

------
wallflower
The iPhone developers, the good ones (e.g. have been Featured in App Store)
that I am fortunate to know personally, they're not even touching Android.

Reasons: Unfamiliarity and leaving the comfort zone.

iOS development is comfortable. When you do Android dev, you give up a lot of
comfort for raw, unfettered access. It is a rule of thumb when you develop for
Android that when you release you will get ANR (Application Not Responding)
simply because of the fact that you can't test on more than a few actual
devices. I get crash reports from the market site that I can't fathom how they
even can happen (stuff like libraries that are statically linked not being
found)

And, as an primarily Android dev now, can you imagine giving up Core Data (for
all its faults, the latest iOS 5 [redacted] makes it better), Interface
Builder (ADT 11 is getting closer but still not close) and even stuff like
Objective-C Categories?

------
gte910h
On fragmentation:

We were able to quantify that indeed Apple’s iOS is the platform with the
least fragmentation (on average four versions per app), as has been widely
noted from empirical evidence in the past. Apple manages fragmentation through
two primary means: first, it has standardised the screen size and resolution
for its handsets and tablets; and second, as an OEM and platform vendor, it
has commercially streamlined the means by which most iPhone or iPad users are
upgraded to the latest OS version.

In contrast, our research indicates that Android developers must create six
versions of their apps on average, which is on par with mobile web apps. The
stark difference in fragmentation across Apple and Android devices is also
evident amongst the different platform versions in the installed base of
devices. According to Google data released on May 2011, 25% of active Android
handsets run on platform versions more than 18 months out of date. Meanwhile,
according to app analytics firm Localytics, only 20% of existing Apple 3GS
devices had not yet been upgraded, just two months after the introduction of
iOS4. In other words, Apple devices have the youngest runtime age in the
mobile industry

~~~
theBobMcCormick
> In contrast, our research indicates that Android developers must create six
> versions of their apps on average.

That part makes no sense to me. I've _never_ seen a single app in the Android
Market that has 6 different versions. And it would probably be obvious. The
Market will hide apps that aren't compatible with your device, but each app
still has to have a separate, unique name.

The most versions of a single app I've been able to find is TouchDown, which
has 3 versions: 1 for Android 1.x devices, 1 for Android 2.x devices, and 1
for MobileIron customers. The third version arguably would still exist even if
there were only a single Android handset.
<http://www.appbrain.com/browse/dev/NitroDesk%2C+Inc>.

Anyone have a concrete example of an Android app with 6 versions in the
Market?

~~~
gte910h
They're probably also counting the bastardized content pack thingy many people
used instead of In-App purchase where you buy/download other items on the
store for levels or whatnot.

------
jlgosse
I enjoy how he rambles on about how Java is dying, and that it isn't secure,
but earlier says that 67% of mobile developers are working on Android
applications.

~~~
rlmw
Indeed, I think the author needs to rephrase 'Java' as 'Java ME' for a lot of
that.

------
cwp
Misleading headline. It implies that >50% of developers are coding for Android
exclusively, but that's not the case. It would be just as (in)accurate to say
that "Most developers are coding for IOS."

------
avgarrison
"...67 per cent of developers code for Android..." I'm a little confused. 67%
of all developers? 67% of mobile developers?

~~~
mikk0j
Should be of "mobile developers", upon reading the article. But nonetheless,
the numbers are a bit pointless since they don't indicate overlap (gosh, you
can develop both iOS and Android?). What would be interesting is to know the
share of "original" development (not "just" porting - but apologies for the
generalization) on platforms, or if it is done multi-platform from the start.

~~~
yread
Yeah, I guess you could read it as "33% of mobile developers completely ignore
Andriod"

------
martingordon
Haven't read it yet, but here's a direct link to the report:
[http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile...](http://www.visionmobile.com/rsc/researchreports/VisionMobile-
Developer_Economics_2011.pdf)

FYI for those on mobile/capped access, it comes in at 15 MB.

------
headhuntermdk
"Entitled Developer Economics 2011, the study shows that 67 per cent of
developers code for Android, up from 59 per cent in 2010. IOS lags behind at
59 per cent, but that's also up from 50 per cent last year, most likely due to
Apple's introduction of the iPad."

Last time I checked 67% + 59% != 100%

~~~
avgarrison
Well, I suppose developers could develop for more than one platform.

~~~
nhebb
Which of course means that the "instead of" in the title is misleading. I
mean, 67% vs 59% warrants a "most" and "instead of"? What a crap article.

------
megaduck
I am _amazed_ that we've got 56 comments on this thread, and nobody's brought
up market share.

Android has been beating the bejeezus out of iOS on unit sales for a while
now, both in the U.S. and globally. Even more importantly, Android's growing
at a faster rate.

Developers will gravitate towards the platform with the most users. Period.
This has happened time and time again over the past 30 years. IBM, Microsoft,
Oracle, Adobe, Google...

There's a lot of nuance underneath the headline numbers, and certain
communities (like HN) will be friendlier to iOS. However, in general I would
expect Android to capture the bulk of developer attention going forward.

~~~
headhuntermdk
Developers will gravitate to what makes them money. If it was marketshare then
more developers would be writing apps for Symbian than for iOS or Android.

~~~
megaduck
Who says they haven't been? They certainly were in markets where Symbian was
dominant. When I was in China (2008-2009), the developer support for Symbian
was dramatically better than BlackBerry or iOS.

Now that Android has exploded in that market, I expect most of those
developers to migrate away from Symbian to Android if they haven't already.

One thing to remember is that we're talking about the _entire_ population of
software developers. Certain demographics (like HN readers) will show up more
heavily on certain platforms (like iOS). However, the general trends will
always mirror marketshare.

------
Hisoka
Personally, I am building an app for the iPhone first because of public
perception and marketing. It seems more people write and review iPhone apps
versus Android apps - you can just tell when they start Android review
articles with a tone of appeasement ie. "Ok, finally here's something for all
you Android users.."

When someone finds your app and sees there's an iPhone version but no Android
version, their normal reaction is: "That's understandable, Android is coming
next, right?". If you have an Android version but no iPhone, their reaction
will probably be "Hmm.. wait, that makes little sense...". It's just a side
effect of iPhone being the first one to come up with app store.

~~~
bxr
The attitude towards android in general is dismissive. You need look no
further than this HN thread. Imagine how different the posts would be if the
numbers had broken in the other direction, in the iPhone's favor.

------
napierzaza
Well that might be all well and good if you want to be a programmer with the
rest of the herd. But the most profitable app store is the Apple store.
Personally I'm happy that there aren't so many Objective C programmers around.

~~~
avgarrison
I've been able to get by in Apple's app store with minimal knowledge of
Objective C and a massive usage of C++. Thank God for *.mm files!

