[Cialug] iPhone vs Android

[kristau]

Which brings us back to "CIO/other c-levels want 'mobile' app. C-levels all
have iPhones. Dev team creates easy iPhone app to appease c-levels then
moves on to more interesting projects."

No one, including the c-levels, have performed any market analysis
whatsoever. They are just chasing buzzwords. "Why don't we have an 'app for
that'?"

On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 10:03 AM, Todd Walton <tdwalton at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Job's reality distortion field
> > the C-levels at Gannett all have iPhones
>
> Okay, maybe. But C-levels don't become C-levels without at least a little
> bit of business sense. And this isn't just Gannett doing this, it seems to
> happen all the time. There's a company called Axelos who've released an
> iPhone app for learning ITIL, but not Android.
>
> > There's only so much time and resources available to write software
>
> Which seems like a good reason to start with Android, where you stand to
> gain a bigger bang for your buck.
>
> > with IOS, you pay once and get a piece of crap that works OK on most
> devices and your support staff is a single person
>
> But Gannett already has Android apps and therefore Android developers, in
> some capacity. The Register's newspaper app is available for Android. They
> could probably even take the newspaper app code and just rebrand everything
> and stick in new content. Add a map for the RAGBRAI version.
>
> This article:
> http://fueled.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-develop-an-app/
>
> says, "There is a negligible difference in price between the construction
> of iOS and Android apps, although Android can sometimes cost a little more
> due to the wider range of devices and operating system versions that an app
> needs to be optimized for."
>
> Other sources agree, and some put iPhone costs slightly higher.
>
> > it's a good business decision
>
> Which doesn't seem to be the case, which is the root of my question. I
> don't see it.
>
> --
> Todd
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 9:00 AM, Josh More <jmore at starmind.org> wrote:
>
> > App developers come in two flavours - those that want to solve real
> > problems and those that use the easy tools to collect a paycheck. The
> > latter have been targeted by Apple with a campaign focused on
> > promoting graphic artists into "developers".
> >
> > So, in the former case, you have people who are highly skilled and
> > expensive, creating apps that don't look very good and often fail
> > based on the wide range of devices out there. In the latter, you get
> > cheap apps that look great and work reliably (usually) on a class of
> > device.
> >
> > At the business level, an Android solution requires investing a lot of
> > cash up front to pay for the good devs AND investing in a support
> > infrastructure since there's no way to test an app on all available
> > devices so you have to deal with the constant "my four year old device
> > won't run your app!" complaints. If you go with IOS, you pay once and
> > get a piece of crap that works OK on most devices and your support
> > staff is a single person whose job is saying "we don't support the
> > iPhone4, you have to upgrade".
> >
> > All told, it's a good business decision, even if we don't like it.
> >
> > -Josh
> >
> > On Sun, Apr 12, 2015 at 2:49 PM, Todd Walton <tdwalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > It has long boggled my mind why it seems so common for some
> organization
> > to
> > > produce a phone app for iPhone but not Android. Close to home, the
> > biggest
> > > offender is the Des Moines Register. They made an app for iOS for
> > RAGBRAI,
> > > but not for Android, and the same for a new "things to do in Des
> Moines"
> > > app. They promised an Android version Real Soon Now, but we're still
> > > waiting.
> > >
> > > What is so hard about making an app for Android? You'd think the least
> > they
> > > could do is write the thing in HTML5 and show a mobile website on both
> > > platforms.
> > >
> > > Android phones clearly outnumber iPhones in the U.S. and worldwide, and
> > > it's not like Des Moines Register's audience (or the audience of any of
> > the
> > > other apps I've seen do this) are iPhone heavy. Why would a company
> limit
> > > themselves by deliberately rolling out to a smaller audience and then
> > > waiting years to go to Android? (Or never going, for some of them.)
> > >
> > > I thought it might be that iPhone is where the money is. But there's
> info
> > > on that here:
> > >
> > >
> >
> https://medium.com/its-an-app-world/march-2015-iphone-vs-android-monetization-capabilities-you-won-t-believe-who-won-7a02fde2dc2
> > >
> > > # of phones worldwide:
> > > iPhone: 600,000,000
> > > Android: 1,700,000,000
> > >
> > > Yearly Downloads:
> > > iPhone: 22,000,000,000
> > > Android: 51,000,000,000
> > >
> > > In App Purchase Revenue:
> > > iPhone: $10,000,000,000
> > > Android: $6,000,000,000
> > >
> > > In App Ad Impressions:
> > > iPhone: 580,000,000,000
> > > Android: 1,210,000,000,000
> > >
> > > Ad Revenue:
> > > iPhone: $3,300,000,000
> > > Android: $4,500,000,000
> > >
> > > That doesn't look like a clear case for iPhone being the money maker,
> > > especially in the case of the Register, being driven by ads.
> > >
> > > Anyone have any insight? What's so special about iPhone that so many
> > people
> > > choose to distribute there, and not on Android?
> > >
> > > --
> > > Todd
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