Which is the best mobile platform to start out developing on - Android or IOS (iPhone)?
Hi all, I’m looking into getting into developing apps for mobile devices and am not sure which to go for.
I’ve tried to weigh up the pros and cons but still can’t decide - this is what I have so far…
For Android:
I’ve always been a PC user and currently use a PC with XP, so to develop for the iPhone, I would need to buy a Mac, therefore pushing up costs, for Android, I can just start straight away on my PC.
Super Bowl hotels
My phone contract is up and buying an Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S Probably) to test apps on would be cheaper too.
Some people say that Android will be bigger than IOS ‘In a few years’ and it’s a great time to be getting into it.
I’ve been told that it’s really difficult to actually get an app approved by Apple.
More widely used language(s) opposed to Objective C (More useful outisde of Android Development?)
For the iPhone:
I want one!! (Skipped it last time and got a WinMo device).
It’s the biggest of the 2 platforms at the moment
No fragmentation, only one iphone platform (well 2 now I guess) but so many Android Devices out there.
Hardware won’t keep changing / being superseded every month or so!!
So, what do you guys think? Is IOS the way to go? Is it worth the extra cost? Any help would really be appreciated - thanks!!
Just get android, you can always pay more for iOS later. It’s not hard to be approved by apple unless you’re a moron who puts breasts in it, or it crashes.
Yepp, Apple people obviously don’t like breasts. 
My vote went to iOS at first though. Simple reason: Fragmentation on Android. For the first game, it was just too much to get a decent amount of devices to check against, at least that’s what I think. My first Android port is not yet out, so we’ll see. But talking of buying a Mac and such - well, you have certain costs for both platforms. Devices, platforms and such. I guess the difference is not that big in the end - apart from the fragmentation.
Go for iOS. The review process isn’t that bad and if you ever want to sell anything Android is like diving head first into an empty pool.
Yeah but his barrier to entry is significantly less with droid in development terms. Otherwise he has to fork out for a mac and 99 dollars for apples dev program.
If the mac isn’t an issue then ofc get iOS.
hippocoder: true, but the backhanded slap in the face when your app gets 200 000 downloads and 98% from asian pirate sites is quite rough
I’m with hippocoder, if mac and the $99 Apple license isn’t an issue go with iOS. If not go for the most used droid phone right now.
If you didn’t have to buy the Mac, I would say iOS, but you do, so Android would be easier for you. Look at a free-to-play sale model because piracy is very high on Android devices.
Do you want to generate sales/$$? Then IOS is the no-brainer answer (even with the investment of hardware). If you are just playing around and don’t care about either sales/$$ or the maintenance nightmares of a fragmented marketplace, then Android. It’s that simple.
Gigi.
I agree if your desire is to make no money then go with android. I have about 15 Android apps and they bring in about $20 a day in total from both sales and advertising. The problem is you have you have to give your app away because people with an Android phone would rather spend 2 days of their time finding your app on a pirate website than spending a dollar on it.
Also because of the problems with the google payment system about 50% of sales come back with “Google order # 1234 has been cancelled because carrier billing authorization did not succeed for your buyer. The buyer was not charged”. I have hundreds of these emails from google, so even if you manage to find an Android user who is willing to spend money they often cant.
IOS users are more conditioned to pay for items, so I now only aim for IOS and because I use Unity, if the IOS can be built for Android with no errors I sometimes release it on Android but never give it the same time or effort as the IOS version.
I would say iOS for the simple fact of Android’s excessive device fragmentation, like Glockenbeat already said. Android has too much devices to test on, too much different CPU powers, many different resolutions wich doesn’t match an universal standard. It’s like the old J2ME games: any single decent game existed in at least six different versions, one for each group of devices.
The big downside of entering iOS development is the high cost of a Mac, unless you already have one. Personally I bought an used 2009 Macbook and everything is going fine.
True dat! Mac’s are expensive… and I struggled with the mac development process! Don’t get me wrong, I love my macbook and what I can do with it. But, Apple makes development much harder than necessary. Complicated obtuse.
But they make fantastic tablets and phones!
Gigi.
Imho… go for iOS first.
I know the initial investment in technology is bigger, but I think the opportunity is bigger too.
It’s a difficult market out there, it’s already difficult on iOS to make some money (with people actually buying stuff in the App Store), on Android you read a lot of horror stories: too many platform to support for a small developer, less people buying and so on.
We are currently developing an indie game for mobile, but we’re targeting iPad/iPhone/iPod touch first. And maybe we’ll go Android later. 
How hard is it to port from Android to iOS (my plan)? It seems like it would be harder to do the opposite (if your iOS game is > 50mb) but I bummed a used mac from family and have been developing for Android, with the intention of porting it to the mac when I have it mostly wrapped up, and swap out the input for iOS touches instead of android.
I got a 4g phone and kindle fire for less than an ipad2, and still have a hard time swallowing $500 for a tablet instead of a laptop, but I understand Apple customers are probably more likely to pay money and you don’t have the fragmented device nightmare of android, I assume if your app runs well on ipad2 it likely would run well on ipad3 and newer as they come out. (including shaders, etc)
So how much trouble is it to port from Android => iOS? Also if I’m targeting kindle fire level devices in Android, I assume it should run well on ipad2 era devices?