I’m going Android. Well, not really. But I will be making the shift to doing some Android development along with the iOS development I do. Here are some reasons why I’m making this shift.
Market Share
Well, I just can’t ignore the platform anymore. Android’s market share is definitely something that you can’t ignore if you’re going to be doing anything serious in mobile. At the rate which Android adoption is growing, the platform is going to be a major player for the next few years. If you’re releasing free apps, it makes sense to release them on at least these two platforms. I think in the near future, it will also make sense to release free apps on WP7 as well. Pay apps I think fall into a different category. Android users are less likely to pay for apps than iOS users, so as a result, if you’re building a pay app, iOS still makes sense as a primary/only strategy.
The Lengthy Apple Approval Process
As fast as everything moves in technology, waiting a week for an app to be approved by Apple is an incredibly long period of time. Though I understand Apple’s desire to maintain a level of quality when it comes to apps, there are definitely times when time to market trumps quality concerns. In contrast to Apple’s approval process, your Android can hit the market the same day you publish.
App Updates
On the Android OS, app updates are pushed to the device. So if you have a bug in your app, and you provide a fix to that bug, you can be assured that your users are very likely to have the updated version of the app once it hits the Android Market. iOS users have to intentionally check for updates. In time-sensitive situations, this becomes a less than effective delivery mechanism.
Fun to Learn
I like new challenges. And I’m always up for learning a new language. Somehow, all this time, I’ve avoided learning java. This gives me a perfect excuse to jump into the java pool.
Now the question remains, which Android device do I get to use as a development device?