The app world is the world, where competition is fierce! The fight between Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS is quite evident. They are two great platforms each with some unique strength and have access to vast quantities of apps. Who in the end will win the mobile app war?
Google pays millions to Apple to make their search engines the default search provider for iOS devices but Google collects more from ads placed on Apple devices. Apple and iOS only exist to serve the top 15% of the richest segment of the global population while everyone else is on Android. Research shows that Google’s Android enjoyed close to 78% of the market share, globally. A number of research firms show that the market is tilted towards Android. Market share alone is not the only overriding factor. Android OS phones are mainly low-end phones and the users in that market are typically not big spenders. Apple, on the other hand, works on the higher end and is reported to have 800 million credit cards on file in iTunes. That is a lot of money to grow its iPhone app business.
In the first week of January this year, iOS fans had spent around $500m on iPhone apps and in-app purchase, which is a huge amount. There are some obvious reasons for Apple’s success. Quality control is a very important, as Apple keeps a tight control on the smartphone hardware and operating system. In addition, Apple spends a huge amount of money on developers every year. But Google Play’s worldwide downloads are higher than that of the App Store as Android’s consumer base is huge. Google Play has now overtaken Apple’s App Store as the number of apps it hosts is more and also the number of developers working on the platform.
It is said the iOS app user are more app-happy and free-spending than Android users. There are plenty of stars that makes iOS app a far more attractive market than Android. Developing for Android is a hassle as – the obvious obstacle is the challenge of supporting a variety of devices from different manufacturers, with varying specs and hardware features and running a different variant of the OS.iOS mobile application development is comparatively easier than that of Android, even if you are new.
Both iOS and Android have over a million apps but both have their advantages and disadvantages. In some cases, the Android Apps available in the market lack the key features. For example, the TiVo app lets you manage your DVR’s recording but does not let you watch them. Many argue that Android’s outstanding market share will lead it to become the dominant app platform. Android’s growing popularity has had a positive effect on it app download. However, iPhone users can be sure of getting future updates at least as early as anyone else if the iOS mobile application is available on Apple’s App Store. But there are exceptions in the case of Android. When an app update comes, one has to wait for weeks or months before the update is available.
Apple’s key market is the US and Europe but it is increasing its revenue in emerging economies like India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia, but Google’s growth is coming mainly from these countries. Recently China is becoming a major business hub for Apple as its app download is increasing every quarter.
Project Titan is Apple’s next big project on electric cars. Apple would enter the automobile market on 2020 and Apple views this car as ‘the ultimate mobile device’. It is said Apple will win the App war in spite of the fact that Google may have won the operating system battle. Currently, it might be difficult to declare entirely that Android is better than iPhone or vice versa because the battle between the two is still on!
