Ask HN: Android or iPhone Os, where do you think the money is for developers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Android or iPhone Os, where do you think the money is for developers?

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I've opted for Android to make some cash, and from what I see, the android market keeps growing but for some reasons, android users seems to not care much about apps, or at least spending money for apps, at the other hand iphone users spend a lot. Android will shortly probably have the biggest market share, but iphone users will keep spending money, as Business men (not developper, we are talking about money, not the ToS of apple), where do you think the most money will be? Care to share your views?

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Neither. I've been in the business for over a year and the money isn't bad, it's just not enough to sustain a business in and of itself. I wrote about it here: http://techneur.com/post/440686528/its-all-our-fault-why-bui...

If you want specific numbers, just email me.

I remember seeing a study not too long ago that examined how many apps a typical user on each platform downloaded and how many they paid for. The iPhone users were just a little more spendy than the Android users.

Now, there is a whole lot more competition in the App Store and Android is growing a lot faster. So I suspect the real answer is Android, but that is just conjecture and doesn't take into account the iPad.

I wish I could remember where that study was.

Edit: Magneus linked to what I was thinking of

3 years ago I bought my first Apple computer. Coming to the Apple platform, I was amazed by all the apps my fellow co-workers would buy for their Macs. Most of them were just simple stupid things that cost only a few bucks but I could never see an average non-Apple user buying. I have no statistical evidence, but it seems like Apple users are more susceptible to buying apps, ring tones, songs, and other junk. My advice would be build for the iPhone and if you get something that is very popular or making you a ton of money, then port it over.

As a Mac user I don't believe Apple users are susceptible to buying junk. Apple users are more spendy, on average, than a typical Windows users but there is a wide chasm between well designed, simple software and junk.

The typical Windows user won't use more than what came with their PC on the day they bought it. Ever wonder why Dells, HPs, and Gateways come loaded with a lot of crap software? It's because ISVs know that your typical user won't spend more than he has to. If it comes with the PC and it's good enough than they'll use that. But that user will rarely head back to the store to search for an alternative.

When software is well written it's perfectly fine to show the developers some respect by paying for it. That's why the Mac shareware community is in much better shape than the PC side.

Ever wonder why Dells, HPs, and Gateways come loaded with a lot of crap software? It's because ISVs know that your typical user won't spend more than he has to. You are forgetting that Dell, HP, etc get kickbacks from the software companies.

You can take your chances with retail and hope someone is curious enough to pay for it or you can pay an OEM to include it and atleast the curious part will be satisfied.

Whether it's shelf space or disk space ISVs pay for it.

These numbers are a few months old, but they may help you make your decision:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/02/25/6-ways-iphone-and-and...

I can't speak for actual numbers, but I always have thought it's wise to consider the possibility of rejection from the App Store. I own an Android phone, so I'm clearly biased, but it always seemed slightly ridiculous to develop for a platform where there's a chance of being arbitrarily rejected. There have been far too many stories of decent applications being rejected from the app store. Do you really want to take the chance of coding it for nothing?

Platform debates aside, I think the easy answer is to follow the money.

iPhone users have a track record of spending money - the iTunes App store is a huge success. I have seen more stories of iPhone developers making scads of money than I have for Android. Having said that, that is a catch-22. The successes represent around 1% of all of the apps in the store.

The one emerging problem with the iTunes App store, however, is discoverability. It is damned hard to get discovered within the iTunes App store. Clearly to be successful, you have to get a lot of good buzz outside of the App store.

The experience is very telling, and at the moment it's a no-brainer - iPhone, and it will reign for a long time yet. If you want to develop for Android you're probably better on custom apps / devices (tablets, specialized apps) as an employee rather than as an independent app developer.

The market demographics are very different - Android : 3/4 male, purchase apps 1/2 as often as iPhone users. iPhone users, around 50/50 male/female, affluent (as Android comes with cheaper devices the owners of those devices probably aren't using the platform the same way as iPhone users do).

Obsolete platform hardware/software - this is huge. Most existing Android phones won't ever get an upgrade to 2.x Android OS. Therefore to reach the market, you need to make it backwards compatible with the 1.x, which is a PITA.

Apple has only just announced that their next OS won't work on original iPhone (2G). This is a massive difference. You have been able to build for the latest OS for all iPhone devices for 3 years. Contrast this to Android - some devices released in the last 6-12 months won't run software built against latest Android OS.

Flash - this is big and I believe it will push prices lower in the Android app store. There has already been a "race to the bottom" in some categories (e.g. games, think 99c variety) in the iPhone App store. iPhone users will pay for games that you can play in a browser on a late-model Android phone for free. Therefore there's less incentive to pay for these games on Android devices.

Discoverability will always be a problem for any platform.

I'm an Android handset owner, and I'm considering expanding my skills to develop for Android.

My answer is that it depends. If Apple don't object to your app or business model, then the iPhone is probably the better bet, for now, and until and unless the number of Android handsets greatly outnumber iPhones (i.e. even with a lower customer conversion rate, the absolute numbers then tip in favour of Android).

Factors that limit the money available to Android app developers include a) lots of free apps to choose from; paid apps need to offer something special - even many trivial apps for iPhone seem to be paid b) handset manufacturers' lack of co-operation with Google in getting their firmware releases approved by Google for copy-protected Market apps makes it more likely that potential customers will just download illegal copies of your app because it's actually easier than buying it. Fail.

Maybe try to build for both platforms? There are a lot of interesting options in that way. Titanium Mobile from Appcelerator (http://www.appcelerator.com/) lets you compile one application to Android and iPhone os. Also, MonoTouch is a software to make iPhone apps using C# (if you're used to C# it might be faster than learning objective-c) and the Novell team are currently working on MonoDroid for Android phones. (http://monotouch.net/)

Anyone has any reviews about Titanium Mobile?

Any hooks? They seem to ask for a signup to create an app.

Short term definitely the iPhone, longer term probably the android.

I work for a small software company that makes iPhone and Android applications. From what I understand we make much more from the iPhone apps. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but I think the store is just set up in a way that favors free apps. Also the Android store allows for VERY easy refunds.

Just a minor advice. If you do it mostly for the money, you won't be near as successful as if you do it because you are passionated about it.

Someone had to say this :P

I don't want to be "this guy", but if you have an idea capable of producing revenue and the execution and marketing skills to put it into peoples hands; there's no reason you shouldn't be able to release it to both platforms.

It sounds like your after "code a weekend and get paid millions". Which is a statistically non-existent market on either of the platforms.

> It sounds like your after "code a weekend and get paid millions".

What gave you that impression? Or has the submission been edited?

I second this question.

The fact that he thinks it's a one-or-the-other choice. My employer has an iPhone, an Android and a BlackBerry app. My personal project (Phonalyzr) is available in both Android and BlackBerry flavours (no iPhone due to SDK restrictions).

All three platforms have pretty big market shares, focusing on one exclusively seems like bad business.

If he's just the one guy he might already be swamped by supporting one major application for one platform.

Perhaps I was a bit harsh, didn't really mean it as negatively as it sounded. It's just that the entire post gave me the impression that he is more after making money than creating something valuable.

But my comment was that if he really is after making something valuable, he can choose either platform to make it for first and then make it for the other. It really won't make any difference since he will most likely not just be able to make it for one platform then wait for the money to roll in.

Or in other words, making it for one doesn't have to exclude the other; and after having created it for one, he will be able to get a better feel for the market and work on the other while working on the marketing.

I don't see how choosing just one of the platforms will make you the most money unless you're counting on a lucky break and get the lottery sales figures. Hence my judgment that he's really asking what platform he's most likely to get lucky in.

Of course everything I say has limitations in what you want to produce. And sort of contradictory to my point if the project is very big.

depends on the kind of app?

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