Android App Development and Developers

Android App Development and Developers

Android offers developers greater scope for customization than Apple. The latter keeps tight control of default apps to make the user experience more homogeneous. The former allows much more flexibility. Therefore, the Android development process is very different from the IOS process.

More lines, lower rates

Also, due to the sheer pervasiveness of the android development platform, development tools and resources are relatively less scarce - with less scarcity you benefit from relatively lower hourly development rates. In a previous article we wrote about the fact that Java - the lingua franca of Android App developers - is significantly more verbose than Object C and Swift, used for IOS Apps. More verbose equates to more lines of code which in turn translates into the potential for more bugs. In fact, we noticed that for the same app, developed for Android and IOS, the Android app had circa 30% more lines of code. Overall, more coding equals more hours of work. Although Android developers' hourly rates are slightly less than the equivalent IOS developers (and Android development skills are relatively more pervasive), due to the fact that there is just so much more code, Android apps still cost slightly more to develop.

Android is pervasive

However, the Android platform is everywhere - Android smartphone manufacturers include Samsung, HTC, Sony, Motorola, LG, Huawei, ZTE, and more. Most come with a wide range of screen size, camera, stylus, keyboard, SIM and other options - including many that you simply cannot get with Apple devices - such as micro SDs and removable batteries. Android simply has the greatest variety and choice of smartphone and tablet devices.

Android apps and devices for every budget

This also means that Android fits the widest range of budgets, and attracts a much wider and more diverse demographic user base than Apple. To put this into perspective, last year IDC said that Android's market share was 79%, dwarfing the IOS share of 14.2%. Unless your application is aimed at a specific relatively high net worth demographic, it makes more sense to look beyond Apple to Android.