subject: Differences In Application Development On Ios And Android Platforms [print this page] The growth in smartphone market is directly impacting the mobile application industry. If we talk about the leading or say the most popular operating platform for mobile devices, iOS and Android will be the winners. While Apple devices are known for their stable (closed) ecosystem, Android is loved for its open source nature and the flexibility it offers to users.
A huge number of app development companies & individuals have created mobile apps for Android. Distimo in analytics says that more than 100,000 applications were added to the Google Play Store in first four months of 2012, whereas only 63,000 for Apple's App Store, 35,000 for Microsoft's Marketplace, and 22,000 for BlackBerry App World were added.
There has always been a debate on which of the two OS is better for application development.
Advantages for Developers
Programming Language
Android offers an easier development experience. It's like building web page with JavaScript, SQL, and HTML. The platform has very rapid development languages.
In iOS, most of the development is done in Objective-C, a loosely and dynamically typed language. Therefore, programmers can do amazing things and come up with never-thought of applications more easily.
Moreover, iOS has a more mature API, which provides better documentation and tools.
iOS runs native code whereas, Android runs on a virtual machine. This is the reason why Android devices with faster CPUs feel slower than iOS devices.
Application Development Platform
Developers get an open source platform in Android, which further enables them to use third party tools for the development purpose. This way, an Android app development company can play around with features and add more functionality to them.
Apple is restrictive with the developer guidelines. There are only fixed set of tools for application development and nothing can be used outside these tools.
Multitasking
Android is a versatile OS and developers can create wonderful applications meant for multiple purposes. But, the multitasking nature of Android might be a problem for beginners because it takes lot of time to understand and master the app development in the open source platform. Moreover, Android is a highly fragmented OS, which makes it even more challenging for developers.
Apple on the other hand, is a stable platform with specific tools. This helps developers in understanding the flexibility and limitations of the development process. And when developer has fixed guidelines, it gets easier to process with the task.
Mobile Games Development
It is difficult to create a smooth gaming experience in Java. Since, Java garbage collection can ruin the experience, it is necessary to write the game in C with Android NDK, which is a tricky job.
Advantages for Consumers
Security Concerns
For Android app development, one has to take an annual membership to be able to make the apps available on the store. Whereas, Apple developers have to wait for a duration of 3-4 weeks to get approval from the team and launch the application on App Store.
Apple has its own ecosystem and each application is thoroughly checked by the team before approving it, which automatically makes it more secure. Whereas, Google Play Store is flooded with applications and hundreds of new apps are posted everyday. Therefore, it is not possible to stringently check every app that raises doubts on the security features of the application.
Scope in Enterprise App Development - Enterprises are preferring iOS over Android because they believe the closed operating system is more secure and it won"t be that easy to retrieve the confidential data stored provided by the mobile application.
Cost Factor
An open operating system is certainly cost-efficient for consumers in comparison to a closed system. You will find various free versions of a particular application along with the paid ones in Android and the reason being multiple developers working on their own projects. It is up to the user, if he/she wants to use the free or the paid version of the application.
Since, application development for iOS is more time taking, demands more efforts, and a bit expensive too, developers prefer coming up with their unique idea instead of improving the already existing concept. Therefore, most of the applications on App Store are paid.
Both; open and closed mobile application development platforms have their advantages & disadvantages. Selection of a platform usually depends on the target consumers, resource used for app development, and the type of application you want to build. One has to carefully research and understand the unique features of each mobile platform before coming to a conclusion.
