
Why Android is a Better Platform for Startups than iOS - matt2000
https://medium.com/@pents90/the-story-of-appchat-and-why-android-is-a-better-platform-for-startups-than-ios-6d0847427fb1
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egwynn
But what if you want to make money by selling your app to people? Is the idea
to test/iterate your app quickly on Android before bringing the finished
product to iOS for revenue? Most sources I find online show a big discrepancy
between expected app revenue from the iOS and Android worlds, so developing a
for-profit app on Android first seems a little iffy to me.

EDIT: Hi downvoter[s]. Is it taboo for me to bring up the aforementioned
revenue discrepancy? As far as I know it’s real, and should be a consideration
for anyone who’s trying to follow the money. I’d appreciate insights and
discussion instead of anonymous downvoting.

~~~
notsony
10 years ago we were told not to write software for the huge Windows market
because Mac owners buy software unlike those cheap PC users.

10 years later we keep getting told not to write software for the huge Android
market because iPhone owners buy apps unlike those cheap Android users.

~~~
egwynn
According to some, the Google Play store is now grossing more money than
Apple’s App Store. But on a per-downloader basis, it looks like the average
iOS user is way more likely to spend money on any particular app than an
Android user. So if you’re after users who spend money, it seems like a no
brainer.

But I have no idea if this same dynamic applied to the PC/Mac days.

~~~
bestnameever
But aren't there almost double the number of Android user's out there than iOS
users?

Any idea on how many of those are low end devices sold to users who just want
a phone and have no interest in the play store?

I just get the feeling that looking at averages of the entire platform in this
instance can be misleading as there are different types of users.

~~~
joelwilliamson
There are more than 5x as many Android users than iOS users.

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doseofreality
So, you should be "Android first" with an app that could never be written on
iOS? Yes, I'd say that makes sense.

~~~
Mithaldu
Regardless of whether it would've been an option for this app, the same rules
of reality apply to any other app: On Android reacting to user feedback can be
done extremely quickly.

This is probably just their first android project and they had this
realization and are eager to share it.

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tdkl
Why is being able to release a half-assed app which needs "x iterations daily"
to the public suddenly something to brag about ? That's precisely why I
respect App Store content more then on the Play Store, I expect app releases
to be serious and not taking the users as beta testers.

~~~
philtar
I, on the other hand, like to be on the cutting edge.

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mattmaroon
That's been our experience. The move fast and break things approach works well
on Android, and is disastrous on iOS. When updates are only possible every 2
weeks at best, it's more like move slowly and don't break anything or your
ratings will tank.

~~~
lyinsteve
>The move fast and break things approach

Sounds like something I want no part in.

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PauloManrique
My 2 cents, considering Brazil, one of the biggest markets on the planet:

An iPhone here costs A LOT, and I mean A LOT of money. The iPhone 6 costs US$
1129 and the iPhone 6 Plus costs US$ 1258.

Our minimum wage, in comparison, is US$ 254/Month. The average montly income
on the country last year was around US$ 376.

Just those figures already show how is nearly impossible for most of us to
have iPhones. Add to that our crime rate, and most of us that can afford one,
won't dare to do it in risk of losing it.

It's sad that we see a lot of nice apps, some good ideas and we can't even
test it. I believe it's the same for several countries around the world.

That said, if you really want your app to reach a global audience, support for
Android is a no brainer. I find the "Android users buy less" excuse not really
acceptable, because the marrket is much bigger.

And I don't see that scenario changing in Apple's direction, because Windows
Phone is growing a lot on developing countries, and it's the second operating
system is almost every south american country. In Colombia, Windows Phone
already have 25% of the market share. In Brazil, 6%, while iOS have 4,7%.

~~~
swah
I never realized that Android has almost 90% market share here in Brazil. I
wonder how many of those are low-end devices that don't just run the same apps
that a quadcore, 2gb ram device runs.

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crazychrome
I totally agree with the article except one thing: it's much much more a
pleasant experience to code iOS app than Android, even without considering the
fragmentation problem.

~~~
spotman
+1.

I love that the android store does not make you wait.

Having said that, I hate Android Studio, and Eclipse, and I hate the android
simulator too.

It makes the development process slower, feels clunky.

To each their own, of course.

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SandB0x
Hmm, I would not want to miss out on iOS users if I were testing an app. I'd
have thought the App Store approval issues would lead to more people pushing
mobile web apps. Plus, nothing updates as quickly as a web-app. Are people
doing this?

The last time I tried to write any kind of app was 2 years ago, and at the
time people were telling me that better mobile web apps and cross-platform
tools like Phonegap were the future. Has this changed or is it still around
the corner?

~~~
davnicwil
I think it's eventually been acknowledged that the phonegap approach only
really works for a certain subset of apps - those where information display is
the primary goal, and UX and interaction aren't more important than fast
development and just getting your app on as many devices as possible.

However if you're really aiming for the smoothest UX, there's still just a bit
too much delay and kludginess with HTML5 controls in the browser/webview, and
nothing will beat native application controls. I think that difference is
pretty small now, for the vast majority of apps and what they need to do, but
it definitely still exists.

Recent cross-platform frameworks like React native certainly seem to buy into
the 'native is king' mindset by focusing on allowing you to write as much
cross-platform shared code as possible, in a single language/framework, but
accepting that you _must_ , with some abstractions, write the final UI layer
with the target device/platform in mind. I.e. more learn once, write for every
platform, run on every platform than learn once, write once, run everywhere,
which seems just as much a pipe dream on mobile devices as it ever was!

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mikhailt
TestFlight improved this a lot last year and even more so this year with the
bump to 6 external builds per day support and 2000 testers.

Note that only the initial major version will be reviewed on TestFlight but
once that gets approved shortly, minor builds can be pushed without the
reviews 6 times a day. It worked really well for us. Once we're happy with the
build, it's one smooth process to push it to the app store.

~~~
nostrademons
It still wouldn't have worked in the situation the article described, because
their initial guess of _who_ their users were was wrong. They posted on a
forum, nobody liked it, but one of their users posted on another forum and it
took off. TestFlight requires that you specify who the testers are, right?

A lot of the reason the web took off was exactly this kind of serendipity; a
dev found an idea to be mildly interesting, posted a rudimentary v1, it's not
useful for what the dev thinks it will be, but users (usually not the users
the dev anticipated) find it useful for something else.

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jph
We use the new Apple TestFlight, which enables iOS testing with 1000 users,
and fast iterations.

For public apps, Apple offers expedited review for public bug fixes, and in my
experience these are very fast, within 24 hours.

~~~
applecore
Coming from the web, where we often ship hundreds of builds and variations for
a production app in a single hour, “within a day” seems a little quaint.

~~~
fleitz
You ship builds every 18 seconds? I find this hard to believe...

200 builds / 60 minutes = 1 build every 18 seconds.

~~~
woah
They're probably doing a b testing

~~~
fleitz
Yup, it's also pretty easy to A/B on mobile.

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fleitz
Yup, most importantly android users just expect less, they really won't care
if your app is slow, buggy, has poor UI, etc, it fits in with the rest of the
platform.

~~~
Oletros
Try harder, too obvious and people won't react

~~~
fleitz
I wasn't really trolling... there are some great apps out there, but even
those feel very broken, it's something about how the app scrolls and i think
in combination with the screen feels on your fingers, it's like a steampunk
phone, you know there's gears inside that might need oiling more regularly.

It's kinda like those make your own pasta places, you eventually realize that
a chef is pretty good at figuring out what ingredients go together, sourcing
high quality ingredients, etc. If you have a basic knowledge of food you can
make pretty darn good pasta at a make your own pasta shop but will get blown
out of the water by an italian grandmother.

You don't want to open your new pasta shop in an area with lots of
grandmothers, if you aren't yet at the top of your game.

~~~
Oletros
Yap, insulting all the users of a platform is not trolling, it is a high
intelligent debate using the same old topics.

> but even those feel very broken, it's something about how the app scrolls
> and i think in combination with the screen feels on your fingers, it's like
> a steampunk phone, you know there's gears inside that might need oiling more
> regularly.

And more trolling

