At Apple's WWDC, 100 developers were queried and 55 said they also develop for Android, but iOS is easier and offers more opportunity for revenue, according to a Piper Jaffray report.
Mobile app developers whose workloads include
creating both iOS and Android apps say Apples iOS is their preferred platform,
Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Douglas J. Clinton said in a June 18
research note. Two categories in particularease of development and future
revenue growthinfluenced their thinking the most.
Apple and Google each recently wooed
developers at respective San Francisco conferencesGoogle at its I/O event and
Apple at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC)making June arguably the
most critical month of the year for each company,
analytics
firm Flurry wrote in a June 7 blog post. With Google and Apple engaged in a
multi-year platform war, it added, the success of each company largely depends
on innovation provided for their platforms by the third-party developer
community.
Munster and Clinton report that of the 100
iOS developers they surveyed at WWDC, 55 of them also develop for Android. This
was up from last year, when 47 percent of the developers queried said they also
made Android apps. Still, the number of Apple purists rose; 42 of iOS
developers at this year's event said they only develop for iOS, compared with
36 percent last year.
Of the 55 who develop for both iOS and
Android, 84 percent said iOS was best for ease of development, said the
report. Android was named as easiest by 5 percent of the 55, while Microsoft
Windows Phone was named by another 2 percent.
Regarding revenue potential, 64 percent of
the 55 believed the potential for dollars was greatest with Apple, 5 percent
said Android and 31 percent were either undecided or uncomfortable answering
the question.
Flurry has
weighed
in on this topic as well, reporting in Dec. 2011 that developers
anecdotally said that they make three to four times as much money on iOS as
Android. Running the numbers, Flurry indeed found that for every $1
generated on iOS, the same app on Android earned a developer $0.24.
The importance of a strong developer base is
crucial to the success of a mobile operating system, and therefore, the success
of a phone or tablet as well, Munster and Clinton said of their findings. We
believe that Apples loyal developer base will continue to develop cutting-edge
apps for iOS that will draw in new customers, helping to fuel continued growth
in iOS device sales.
To the disappointment of many, Apple didnt
introduce a new iPhone at WWDC. Its expected that the announcement will come
later this summer, with the device going on sale in Octoberand, for the first
time, that it will feature a larger display. Apple is also expected to
introduce a smaller version of the iPad in time for the holidays.
Will adjusting apps to the new screen sizes
prove a headache for developers?
Munster and Clinton write that the
developers, judging the effort on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being very
difficult, gave the effort an average score of 3.4.
Given the relative ease expected by
developers for utilizing potential new iOS screen sizes, they wrote, we
believe the introduction of new screen sizes would not affect the success or
availability of the apps on iOS.
In its June 7 post, Flurry reported that 7
out of 10 new apps being built are for iOS. Developers are running a business,
it added, and businesses seek out markets where revenue opportunities are
highest and the cost of building and distributing is lowest.
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