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Comment by avolcano | Hacker News Reader

Just because an OS has a "majority market share" doesn't make it a suitable market. Elegant, minimal premium apps like Clear have done well on the iOS app store, but it's hard to imagine a $5 calculator app getting much interest on Android.

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Why is that hard to imagine? If the application were released for Android, I would have considered it. I've already purchased several Android calculators. There's no real basis for your claim, but I say this while I also realize I haven't provided sufficient evidence to support why Android would be a better platform. The reason I think a lot of applications like this fail on Android is that the developers first target iOS and then try to port it to Android without really designing for Android. The result is something lackluster that doesn't really work for Android devices.

Although you may personally have considered purchasing this calculator on Android. I think he was hinting at the fact that an IOS user is more likely on average to purchase an app and pay a premium for it, hence being more lucrative for developers even with less market share.

"the App Store generated 2.3x more revenues than Google Play."

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/aug/01/android-ap...

It's probably not a good idea to make a decision for a specific app based on the average behavior across all apps, unless your app is "average."

A calculator app is an outlier; it is not an average app. It's also an outlier with real utility --- so it's something people are more likely to pay for.

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