subject: Google Play Or Apple App Store: A Fair Comparison [print this page] Thanks to the presence of some of the interesting and highly innovative games and apps; since its introduction, the Android market, now known as Google Play has enjoyed tremendous popularity. This leads to the speculations that its overtaken the Apples App Store in terms of fan following. This article presents the features of both of these platforms and discusses about the reasons behind their popularity and adaptation among their respected target group.
A Fair Comparison of Google Play and Apple App Store
Google and Apple dominate the mobile marketplace. Even though Microsofts Windows Phone 7 alos possess certain popularity, still it is highly unlikely to win the smartphone race that is going on betweenAndroid or Apples iOS. Blackberry is another major player but similarly languishing at a distance when comes to comparison with iPhone and Android phones and their app stores.
Here a brief comparison of Android and Apple is done based on the views of the app developers and the users:
Developmental Overview:
Excellent resources are offered by both these market places. While Android provides the Android SDK and the development tutorials for free; Apple charges a particular fee to access the iPhone developer program. The programming languages used for Android Application Development are Java based while those used by iPhones are Objective C with the Cocoa Touch API. Outstanding testing and tools are provided by both platforms that facilitates the easy publication of these applications to the stores.
Fees Charged:
More fees are charged by Apple to sign up as developer and upload applications in comparison to Android. However, both take 30% cutoff on all application sales.
Market Size:
Androids market seems to be smaller in size in comparison to Apples.
Discovery of Applications:
Finding apps is a major problem due to the presence of numerous applications in both platforms. Apple App Store facilitates the easy search of the applications and maintain a library of the apps along with user reviews. As Google Play has lesser applications, their visibility is better; but it is not user friendly. Google Play doesnt has a desktop client that makes the finding of applications a tedious task.
Payment and Refund System:
iTunes account handles the payments of Apple App Store. This system is easy to be performed as these accounts are directly linked to the credit cards. But in Google Checkout handles all the payments of Google Play. this system and this is not so convenient in comparison to iTunes. In the case of refunds, Android allows the trial of an application and then refunds the amount charged after uninstall. This is not allowed by the iPhones. In this perspective, Google Play is more suitable for the user.
Open and Closed Policies:
iPhones have a closed system and does not guarantee the publication of the application submitted. But the open system of Android almost all the apps are published.
Fragmentation Concerns:
Android developers are more found to be concerned about the fragmentation. They have an ever increasing number of devices that run OS versions of a wide range. Another concern is the application incompatibility caused by supporting older versions.
Conclusion
Both Google Play and Apple App Store have negative as well as positive aspects. Even though at present Apple has a lead over Android in terms of revenue collection; the later one seems all set to dominate the app market place in the near future, given the more number of phones and tablet PCs from different manufacturers are coming by.
