We live in a globe where game technologies are developing rapidly, and so is its diversity. To any game development project, before it be started off developers have to decide what platform that their game would be aimed at. iOS or android? Each platform has its own rules to develop games with, and so its benefits. Now let’s find out.
Firstly, about business point of view:
market share
The first observations of market share clearly demonstrate that the number of Android devices significantly exceeds that of iOS. Manufacturers are competing with each other to add as much functionality to the smartphone as possible and at the same time make it even cheaper. Due to this, in terms of quantity, Android unconditionally surpasses iOS.
platform revenue
Is it more users equate to more income? The answer is no. For many years The App Store has been ahead of Google Play in profit area, so iOS is the platform which has brought more revenue to its development company.
Number of downloads
Because of the number of Android devices on the market is over iOS’s Android significantly outperforms iOS in terms of downloads and mostly generates its revenue through advertising. A large number of downloads guarantees a large number of ad demonstrations and profit from them.
Secondly, now, let’s take a look on their technical side:
Programming language:
Android vs iOS development is very different in technical terms. Android has an open-source code, so it can be easily adapted for thousands of different devices. The iOS code is closed and works only on Apple devices. Android favors Java and sometimes Kotlin, while iOS has retained the right to exclusivity here too: applications for it can only be written in the Swift language specially created for it. Until it was widely adopted, iOS programmers used the compiled object-oriented programming language Objective-C.
Integrated development environment
Here, we are talking about a set of software tools used by programmers to develop software. For Android, the free Eclipse used to be the most popular medium. It is actively developed and acquired a huge army of fans among programmers. In this environment, developers can connect additional modules to expand its functionality. Besides, a relatively new IDE Android Studio created by Google in 2013 is worthy to concern. This program for developing a mobile application supports several programming languages, including C/C++ and Java, has a built-in emulator and a large library with all kinds of templates and components that greatly simplify and speed up the app development process. Android Studio can work on almost any device without restrictions.For iOS, developers also rely on Apple’s own invention, Xcode. It is an integrated software development environment for OS X and iOS that has a user-friendly interface, autocomplete support, and many other features that make Swift development easier.
However, despite of their advantages each of developing tool has its own backwards that developers should think about before making decision. Programmers often complain about the instability of Xcode, the inability to run multiple simulators at the same time, and problems with documentation. And while Android Studio is often accused of being slow and sluggish, it is stable and has no documentation gaps.
Development speed
Obviously, development on iOS is much faster due to testing: a limited number of exclusively Apple devices makes this process much faster. It’s not that simple with Android games. There are a lot of device manufacturers working with Android, and this should be taken into account during testing. Usually, several different devices are taken at once from the most modern and from the older ones. After fixing the bugs, the game should be tested again on all these devices. In average, Android developers often need 30-40% more time to create a mobile game application than the creators of the iOS option.
Development cost
There are purely hardware costs that you have to face in iOS development. Android Studio installs perfectly on any computer with any pen system, whereas Xcode only requires a MacBook. Accordingly, you have to provide your programmers with modern MacBooks. It will cost you a pretty penny. Also in some regions of the world, iOS developers receive a slightly higher salary due to the increased requirements for iOS games in the App Store. Integration of payment systems and specific administrative panels requires increased attention, while Android development is more flexible and customizable.
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