Kate Matsudaira

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Why Developing for Android Sucks Compared to iOS....

I can't help myself - but I am super frustrated.Developing for Android sucks compared to iOS.

  • It is more expensive.  It takes more time to test, and special case for so many different devices and different capabilities.  All the assumptions you get for free with iOS go out the window on Android.  This adds up to buying more devices for testing, more development hours and more testing hours.
  • Even if you build something that works great on most versions of Android, you can't prevent people from installing your app on a unsupported device, or an older version of the OS.   And then they have the nerve to leave bad reviews.  It sucks to put all that work into something and then get a bad review from someone with a device you didn't test or intend to support.
  • Google and the Android app store doesn't support shared accounts.  The developer builds your app and submits it (yay), but then you want to login and see the how many downloads you have.  Too bad you can't.Update: now you can have shared accounts!  http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/03/making-developer-console-work-for-your.html
  • Android users don't seem to like to pay for apps.  If you have a free app, that's great - but where most iPhone users will gladly fork over $0.99, Android users don't have that same tendency, making it much harder to monetize your hard work.

Hopefully this will change over time but for now if you have to build a mobile app and only can build one platform pick Apple.Oh and I just came across this article: apparently music + android is also difficult :/  [added June 2, 2012]android, iphone, developer, app         

image from: http://forum.dailymobile.se/index.php?topic=42714.0