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Comment by al2o3cr | Hacker News Reader

The report summarized here (for Q2-2016):

http://bgr.com/2016/07/20/ios-vs-android-developers-profits-...

shows the Android store with twice as many downloads but half as much revenue. The importance of this is going to vary depending on specifics about your application - does it need a strong network effect to deliver value, or is it valuable for a solo user?

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I also agree with this idea. If you are going to be charging for your app and want to make a revenue stream off the start before expanding, I think iOS is the better choice. If it's going to be free and you are looking for a big user base then Android will be a better start. The other factor is Android is quite a bit easier for most to get into (but with fragmentation it is a pain to make quality apps) -- Java and any OS compared to obj-c/swift and a Mac.

I have to disagree on Android being easier to get into. The standard libraries and tooling (especially emulators and profilers) are dumpster fires compared to Apple's offering. Just some examples: Non-Web Javascript integration is a third party library. HTTP requests are a third party library. Everything that needs native resources in the JVM goes through an interface called JNI that has a 512 entries limit in the reference table, often requiring you to do manual reference cleanup in your hot loops.

I think it really depends on what the op is looking to make. I made the generalization mostly based on the OS and languages (most universities starting from at least 15 years ago taught Java in at least a few classes whereas objective-c and swift are only iOS specific). I haven't had to deal with your specific examples but I suppose in your case iOS might be easier. I still believe overall Android is easier to get into for the "average" person.

IMO, for the average person, doing iOS with Swift will be easier, except, and only for some simple usecases, if that person is already experienced with Java.

Note that this data is by no means undisputed. It does not come from Apple and Google but from various analytics services with unclear coverage:

1. Do these numbers include ad revenue?

2. Do these numbers include music, magazine and movie sales?

3. Do the Android number include Amazon and the Chinese stores?

4. Do the Apple numbers include desktop apps?

5. Do the Google numbers include chrome extensions?

6. Do Google numbers include third party services such as spotify and netflix? (from the article, the Apple numbers seem to do that)

7. Do Google numbers include hardware sales (via the Play store)?

With that said, both stores are showing extreme growth so neither is a dead end and you will be happy which ever you choose:

http://www.gsmarena.com/google_play_app_revenue_up_82_in_q4_...

Thank you so much. This is EXACTLY the kind of information and suggestion that I had hoped to receive.

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