both have pros and cons. but i need HN members suggestions.
what are your choice? iOS or Android? tell me why? can i make a decent living out any of them?
PS: plz do not give diplomatic answers like "it depends on the kind of app your developing."
The best I can do is that there's more Android devices, but I'm not sure which platform downloads more apps, particularly paid. Last I heard most of the money came from iOS.
If costs are an issue, then Android is likely to be cheaper to get started with, but that depends what you already have. I believe you need an OS X device to program for iOS, if you don't have one and costs matter, that's a big one. If you want a suite of testing devices, Nexus 4, 7 and 10 are cheaper than iPhone 5, iPad Mini and iPad in general. You probably have something from there already though, so that depends. iOS has a $99 developer fee, if costs matter that's another.
So, I won't give an answer that it depends on the kind of app you're developing, but I will say it depends on lots of factors you haven't given us. It might help if you detailed what you have gathered from your own studies on the platforms, and what specifically you wanted from this question.
cost involved in investing for the devices, upfront developer fees for a individual developer like me.
i have a MBP. so not an issue for programming. but i dont have an iphone. my app mostly relies on location services, accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer.
not sure whether these are all available in various android / samsung devices...!
You can use play.google.com if you didn't know for Google Play apps, so if you're not an Android user that's a good place to start checking the ecosystem out. Maybe you can do something similar with the iTunes client, but I'm not too sure about that.
Oh, and another point to consider is there's far more variety among features etc on Android devices. In an attempt not to be diplomatic, that's probably a bad thing for a developer. Probably.
If you want to change the world AND make money...I'll be rooting for you, let me know when you make it, and how.
it looks to me that the app market is kinda saturated.
It makes your apps better as you understand the more subtle things of the OS and how apps usually work on it.
1. If you want to make money from app sales and/or ads, Apple's iOS devices still have the upper hand, and probably will retain that advantage for over a year from now.
2. If you want the more intellectually rewarding choice, with more varied opportunities among projects, and you don't mind waiting for Android app revenue to catch up, choose Android.
With Android, you can modify the OS, or, short of that, make "middleware" that is install-able and that extends system functionality by providing new APIs all apps can use. It's not just an apps API.
point 1 - noted.