When will developers start respecting Android?

[Cs342]

I've been doing a lot of research lately because I want to learn mobile app development and don't know whether to choose Android or iOS (in terms of personal devices I use PC + Android). An overwhelmingly recurring theme that has cropped up during my research into app deployment, programming languages etc is that developers simply have a huge bias towards iOS. All major apps are released for iOS first, and iOS devices get updates immediately compared to Android, and most of all iOS apps generate much more revenue. This has made me seriously consider jumping ship and buying a Mac just to develop for iOS, since it is so much friendlier towards developers. Do you think things will improve for Android in the near future, or will iOS always be the better platform to develop for?

[Virtual01]

iOS will always be superior from a development standpoint. iOS is much easier to develop for because it is a unified platform specific to very few devices. Android is a nightmare to develop for because there are a billion devices that run it and they are all different, yet all of them have to be taken into account when developing.

[KraftDinner]

I've been doing a lot of research lately because I want to learn mobile app development and don't know whether to choose Android or iOS (in terms of personal devices I use PC + Android). An overwhelmingly recurring theme that has cropped up during my research into app deployment, programming languages etc is that developers simply have a huge bias towards iOS. All major apps are released for iOS first, and iOS devices get updates immediately compared to Android, and most of all iOS apps generate much more revenue. This has made me seriously consider jumping ship and buying a Mac just to develop for iOS, since it is so much friendlier towards developers. Do you think things will improve for Android in the near future, or will iOS always be the better platform to develop for?

Just like mentioned above, iOS is uniform, every single iOS device works the same in a sense. Android dev is a nightmare since there's so many platforms and distributions 

[JefferyD90]

Cs342, on 09 Nov 2015 - 02:54 AM, said:

I've been doing a lot of research lately because I want to learn mobile app development and don't know whether to choose Android or iOS (in terms of personal devices I use PC + Android). An overwhelmingly recurring theme that has cropped up during my research into app deployment, programming languages etc is that developers simply have a huge bias towards iOS. All major apps are released for iOS first, and iOS devices get updates immediately compared to Android, and most of all iOS apps generate much more revenue. This has made me seriously consider jumping ship and buying a Mac just to develop for iOS, since it is so much friendlier towards developers. Do you think things will improve for Android in the near future, or will iOS always be the better platform to develop for?

Android cant complain.  Right now the only platform that is really being left behind is Windows Phone (soon to be Windows Mobile).

[techguru]

plus people on ios spend alot more on apps

its much simpler on android to just pirate stuff

[WereCat]

"When will developers start respecting Android?"

 

This apply for Windows Phone too. I mean.. it is easy .. like really easy to develop for Windows Phone as it supports so many formats but few developers do it. I know Microsoft was at fault at first making it harder themselves for the developers but that is no longer an issue. Meantime some developers outright refuse to develop for WP because ... it is WP ...lol get rekt (Google, Pebble, Valve...etc).

[as96]

Developers respect Android, iOS often get an early release just because it's easier to develop for iOS and with easier I don't talk about the API but the actual devices, there are only a few iOS smartphones/tablets while on the Android side there are tons of them running different hardware and different software, which is the biggest flaw of Android.

 

Also piracy is pretty common on Android so add that to the issues.

[Guest Generallee]

Android is shit

[Cs342]

Android is shit

lol I thought this forum was anti apple

[as96]

lol I thought this forum was anti apple

This forum is not anti apple, but there are a lot of annoying fanboys.

[Guest Generallee]

lol I thought this forum was anti apple

 

The vast majority of people here will impale you if you even talk about Apple, OSX or iOS

 

But to stay on the subject : iOS > Android 

 

And this is coming from an Android user.

[vorticalbox]

"When will developers start respecting Android?"

 

This apply for Windows Phone too. I mean.. it is easy .. like really easy to develop for Windows Phone as it supports so many formats but few developers do it. I know Microsoft was at fault at first making it harder themselves for the developers but that is no longer an issue. Meantime some developers outright refuse to develop for WP because ... it is WP ...lol get rekt (Google, Pebble, Valve...etc).

IE was rubbish and got better, even though it got better it didn't manage to swings peoples opinion. they even made a new browser because of it. Truth is you never get a second chance to make a first impression and apple just did it right.

 

Google need to rope in on their terms and force manufacturers to update for 2 years, this is average length of contracts (here in the UK anyway) that should help with devices lagging behind. 

[Cs342]

The vast majority of people here will impale you if you even talk about Apple, OSX or iOS

 

But to stay on the subject : iOS > Android 

 

And this is coming from an Android user.

Why don't you switch to iOS if you don't like Android? Just curious. Also are you saying that from a developer's perspective or just a user's?

[BrightCandle]

You have to pick your poison. With Apple they have a locked market where they control entry, there is a very real possibility that Apple intend to compete with your application and it never gets approved and you just don't get to release, its not a free open market with full competition. iOS is technically a bit less advanced in a number of areas, so while its more uniform its also less capable in a number of areas since Android really is just Linux underneith. With Android you get to compete freely, Google aren't going to remove your competing app but at the same time its a much bigger market place with a lot more free apps in the store and outside of it. The number of devices and the versions of Android about are much wider and the diversity is definitely a big consideration when it comes to the graphics and scaling of your UI.

 

I don't think either is perfect, Android represents the PC market with its open platform approach and Apple represents the closed propriety market.

[Guest Generallee]

Why don't you switch to iOS if you don't like Android? Just curious. Also are you saying that from a developer's perspective or just a user's?

 

I was a die hard iPhone user, had a 4, 4S then a 5, until it got stolen

 

Then i thought hey let's switch for a bit then i had an S5 and a note 3

 

Terrible overheating devices, running terrible OS's

 

I flashed CM12, tweaked everything i could on my note 3 and it's "mildly" working, Android is never going to be on par with iOS, it's always going to be the sluggish, buggy and crippled OS that it is

 

I would love to get an iPhone 6S but that's not an option right now considering i have to sell a leg to afford one, until i can, it's the autistic Note 3 with the autistic Android OS

[Cs342]

I was a die hard iPhone user, had a 4, 4S then a 5, until it got stolen

 

Then i thought hey let's switch for a bit then i had an S5 and a note 3

 

Terrible overheating devices, running terrible OS's

 

I flashed CM12, tweaked everything i could on my note 3 and it's "mildly" working, Android is never going to be on par with iOS, it's always going to be the sluggish, buggy and crippled OS that it is

 

I would love to get an iPhone 6S but that's not an option right now considering i have to sell a leg to afford one, until i can, it's the autistic Note 3 with the autistic Android OS

Do you use a Mac as well? Is the Continuity feature really as good as Apple fans say or is it overhyped?

[Philosobyte]

I was a die hard iPhone user, had a 4, 4S then a 5, until it got stolen

 

Then i thought hey let's switch for a bit then i had an S5 and a note 3

 

Terrible overheating devices, running terrible OS's

 

I flashed CM12, tweaked everything i could on my note 3 and it's "mildly" working, Android is never going to be on par with iOS, it's always going to be the sluggish, buggy and crippled OS that it is

 

I would love to get an iPhone 6S but that's not an option right now considering i have to sell a leg to afford one, until i can, it's the autistic Note 3 with the autistic Android OS

I've used iOS on an iPad 3 for half a year, and I've used Android on a Samsung Galaxy S3, Moto G, and Nexus 9.

 

iOS on the iPad is Earth. 

Android on the Galaxy S3 is Hell. 

Android on the Moto G is Earth. 

Android on the Nexus 9 is beyond Heaven.

 

Pure Android is a good operating system. Especially with 6.0, it now barely uses any power during standby - a single charge can now last me three days on both the Moto G and Nexus 9. I just don't understand how Samsung has the ability to ruin an operating system so much, to inject so much lag. 

 

Granted, I haven't used CyanogenMod, so I can't comment on that. But just know that Samsung sucks and if you want the best Android has to offer, try a newer device with pure Android 5.1+, preferably 6.0 (Nexus, Motorola, etc.). 

[Cs342]

So should I just not learn Android development since the OS is so bad? I think I'll get a Mac and learn iOS then.

[rgon]

Android on the Galaxy S3 is Hell. 

 

Pure Android is a good operating system. I just don't understand how Samsung has the ability to ruin an operating system so much, to inject so much lag.

 

Granted, I haven't used CyanogenMod, so I can't comment on that. But just know that Samsung sucks.

 

Well, that thing you said is true. Samsung's TouchWith is awfull, specially on the Galaxy S3, their worst implementation.

I am currently a Galaxy s3 (yes, 3 years old and no need to upgrade, running 250 apps), but it's running a custom rom (PAC-Rom, a 5.1.1 remix featuring CyanogenMod), and it runs awesome. Try installing more than 60 apps on an iPhone 4S. Good luck. And yes, if you want the occasional network testing tools and all of the greatest, you get to a point where you have these many apps. And why not have them if you can?

 

This is the thing. Samsung has shitted all over android with TouchWith, it is a huge resource hog for the phone. Samsung makes good phones, but not good ROMs. Fortunately all their ROMs and Kernels are open source, so it's easy to port any new ROM to their phones.

 

For Apple users, Samsung = Android. And TouchWiz doesn't always provide the most flawless experience.TouchWiz is the culprit here.

[rgon]

So should I just not learn Android development since the OS is so bad? I think I'll get a Mac and learn iOS then.

The OS is not bad. Their implementations sometimes are. If you want to get to a lot of people, go for Android.

 

The truth is, you don't get compatibility issues between the same versions of android, independantly of the manufacturers. You may get some problems supporting pre-4.0.4 versions, but the Android IDE itself tells you that. And even starting to code for those versions doesn't mean any hiccups for you.

 

The fact that there are so many Android devices does not mean that all those devices are different.. There's a reason why Android is Android and not something else for each device.

The chances of your program not working on other device are just due to their lack of RAM or processing power. The ways of accessing the hardware are exactly the same. Heck, it's linux.

 

And if you've got some pretty crazy ideas in mind, don't go for iOS. You will have quite a hard time coding your application because the architecture is propietary. Don't know something in Android? Someone else knows it. It's open source, nothing is a secret tool you can use but not see.

 

Don't choose to buy a Mac just for developing for a closed platform. Use what you have and start developing for it.

[VulsaviiK]

Why don't you switch to iOS if you don't like Android? Just curious. Also are you saying that from a developer's perspective or just a user's?

 

Tied into contracts. Honestly if I could afford to pay out my One M8, I'd do it in a second and get a shiny new 6S Plus

 

From a development perspective (Which I have to consider these days), I'd much rather be developing for iOS over Android, much bigger market, much easier to develop for

[Cs342]

Tied into contracts. Honestly if I could afford to pay out my One M8, I'd do it in a second and get a shiny new 6S Plus

 

From a development perspective (Which I have to consider these days), I'd much rather be developing for iOS over Android, much bigger market, much easier to develop for

Much bigger market? Doesn't Android have over 80% of the market?

[BrightCandle]

Much bigger market? Doesn't Android have over 80% of the market?

 

Android is a bigger market by a long way, but typically sales are lower. Android users tend to buy a lot less apps and pay less for them as well. Its much easier to develop for Android, the costs are much lower and you have the freedom to do almost anything, so if you have something compelling it can be much more profitable to be on Android as iOS is a bit of a risk as Apple does reject good apps for bad reasons regularly.

[mcrius]

As a Java developer I should be pretty ok with developing for Android, but guess what - I absolutely hate it. It is not intuitive and in my opinion coding for it is just like an open source library that started as a university project that is quite powerful, but looks hideous. To me its just a mash up of incomprehensibe XML and Java, and god forbit you need to use native code. Plus, what's with the constant casting of UI elements to POJOs? Adam Bien wrote a

@[member=Inject]

 extension for JavaFX for like 10 minutes, how hard could it be? And don't get me started on the limitations of the JVM implementation they use...

[VulsaviiK]

Much bigger market? Doesn't Android have over 80% of the market?

 

Typically I see more job listings for iOS devs than Android devs. They have a bigger market share in the app space. Remember that "There's an app for that" slogan they ran with one of their iPhones? More iPhone users buy apps than Android users, making in more profitable from a business standpoint to developers. I hear more good about Objective-C than I do Java, so, there's that

 

Like, I give insane credit to Minecraft modders. For one, they're coding a game in Java. Second, Notch is a terrible programmer, and the games code looks like ass, making coding for the thing a nightmare. I had a few friends that tried and bailed very quickly