Android vs Apple's IOS

Apple and iOS had a head start with apps, but now Android has caught up and even overtaken it: how this will play out is far from certain. both apps were lunched in 2008 but apple took a great lead with 500 applications and recorded over 100 million downloads in 3 months.

Google launched the Android Market in 2008 with only a handful of apps. But it quickly grew. By 2009 it contained some 2300 apps and by the summer of 2010 there were 80000 apps available, and the total number of downloads had surpassed the coveted 1 billion mark. However it was still a long way behind Apple’s App Store.

During 2011 Google hit three major targets, 3 billion total downloads, then 6 billion total downloads and then 10 billion total downloads. This trend continued into 2012 where the number of apps surpassed 500,000 for the first time and the total number of downloads reached 25 billion.

The Android Market was re-branded as Google Play on March 6, 2012, as it was merged with Google Music, and Google eBookstore. Google’s store managed to surpass Apple’s, in terms of the number of apps available, towards the end of 2014. As for 2015, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Google Play had 70% more app downloads than Apple’s App Store in the first quarter of 2015, but Apple’s app revenue was about 70% higher than on Google Play

Actually lets forget about the figures and dive deep into what kind of programmers use which app store and why.

First and foremost, most developers produce IOS apps because Apple’s App Store continues to generate more revenue than Google’s Play Store for developers. The reasons behind this are interesting. The biggest is probably that Apple owners come from higher income families. The handsets are expensive and these more affluent owners are prepared to spend more money on apps than the “average” Android user.

Of course, the Android ecosystem has its fair share of expensive phones, just look at the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. But there are also lots of Android owners whose handsets only cost between $100 and $300. Also in many parts of the world where Android is popular the average user may not have a credit/debut card and carrier billing isn’t always available.

This lack of direct sales revenue has resulted in more ad-supported apps on Android. In fact, the perception that Android doesn’t generate as much money in sales or in-app purchases may mean that many developers just go straight for ad-support apps on Android without even trying to monetize their apps in other ways. As a result it skews the statistics and perpetuates the idea that Android apps only make money via adverts.

But another thing for potential developers to consider is that if you want to write an iOS app then you need a Mac, whereas Android apps can be written on Windows, OS X and Linux.

Interms of web interface, One very annoying aspect about the Apple App Store is that you need to use iTunes. In a web-centric, cloud-centric world it is quite jarring that I need to download and install a proprietary client on my PC to access iTunes. If you search for an iOS app on the web you will get a web page showing the app, but the only way forward from there is to view the app details in iTunes. If you are looking for apps on a iOS device then things are a bit better as you can search, download and install without needing to use the iTunes client on Windows or OS X.

Google Play is different, while it does have a native app on Android, when you use it on Windows or OS X it relies on a pure web interface. From here you can push install requests to your devices and as well as purchase apps. This makes the Play Store much more flexible than iTunes.

Whatever ecosystem you are using there is one thing for sure, you are investing money in apps, movies, music and books, and in doing so you become tied to that ecosystem. Neither Apple or Google let you buy movies or eBooks that are DRM free. Howeer, you can get DRM free music.

If you buy movies on iTunes you can only watch them on an Apple device or on a PC using iTunes. If you want to switch from iOS to Android then you can’t take your movies with you. The same isn’t true of Google. Google offers its Google Play Movies & TV app on iOS as well as its eBook reader app. You can also watch purchased movies on any device that has a supported web browser including on Chrome OS. That means that if you do buy media from Google Play at least you have the option to use that media on just about any device you want.

Here is a list of Apple Applications you cannot find on Android Google Stores

1. infinity blade ---- Infinity Blade III is the most graphically incredible mobile game in existence, and it remains an iOS-only experience.
2. tweetbot ---- One of iOS’ best Twitter client apps is Tweetbot, now on version 4. It allows detailed control of your Twitter account and granular levels of control over notifications, feeds, keywords and third party support for things like video.
3. imovie ---- With iMovie and an iPhone (or iPad) anybody can record, edit and share amazingly creative home movies.

Others include Adobe Photosketch, ummo, quartz, vesper, Day One etc

Here is a few Android Applications you cannot find on IOS stores

1. AirDroid ----- The recent AirDroid 3 update made it easier than ever to manage your Android from your PC.
2. Unclouded ---- This is a disk space analyzer for your cloud storage. Sign in with your Google Drive or Dropbox and it will figure out how much space you have used, whether you have duplicate files, where the space is getting filled (like Google Photos or Gmail), and so on.
3. Es File Explorer ---- This lets you browse around its file system. No such problems on Google’s OS, and ES File Explorer is the best file manager for Android.

Others includes zikk, link bubble, press, bonus tasker and so on.

What do you think, which is the better store?