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Comment by cocktailpeanuts | Hacker News Reader

Developers flock to the platform with more users. Which means Apple actually does need to focus on iOS to get more people to keep using mac.

Those of us who are ios developers will keep bitching about it but have no alternative so will keep on using macs as long as their iOS ecosystem is doing great.

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While this is generally true, it's a little more nuanced. For example: Android has a larger market share (by a lot globally), but apps are frequently developed for iOS first. Why? Because it's easier. Device fragmentation plays a large role in that, but part of the cost of the project is dealing with the development ecosystem (good or bad). As Apple makes the development less appealing (because of sub standard hardware / OSX) android will seem like a better option.

iOS apps are also more profitable than Android.

No one makes money selling phone apps.

You don't have to sell an app to make money from it

"Apple's App Store has paid over $50 billion to developers"[0]

[0]http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12371006/app-store-50-billi...

My point is not whether Android or iOS is better. It's that the key to keeping iOS developers around is NOT to make a better laptop but by putting more effort into iOS so that its market share grows.

No matter how great XCode becomes, if everyone starts using Android, people will all jump ship to Android, which means many iOS developers will change to windows.

Developers don't develop for iOS first because it is easier. They develop there first because iOS users pay money for things/apps. Android users do not.

I'm an Android user and I pay for things (?) and apps. Are you saying that I'm the only Android user who pays for apps and "things"? Or is your statement just a gratuitous cliche?

Statistically the average revenue per android user is lower than per iOS user. It's not a binary either/or.

Source: have been a mobile developer for 6 years.

Is the average revenue per user a relevant number though? When it comes to choosing what platform to develop for, wouldn't total revenue be a more important number?

The difference between total revenue and average revenue per user is important, but I think the answer is still iOS.

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

It's well understood by many startups and established companies that developing for iOS often takes priority because there's a larger group of users willing to pay more money than their android counterparts

Sadly that's more a race to the bottom since Google still don't seem particularly interested in actually making the experience for Android developers any better.

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