Guest blog by Beata Green, Managing Director of HeadChannel Ltd.
Are you a lost and confused appreneur looking to stake your claim in the ever-expanding world of the smart phone? You’re not alone.
In today’s world, technology has evolved by leaps and bounds exponentially. What took whole rooms and buildings to process is now feasible by something as small as a dime or nickel. What took hours and days to compile and compute, now only takes minutes to fractions of a second to execute. What took the minds of many to perform and trouble shoot, now can all be managed automatically by AI, no need to pay them loot. And what’s the craziest thing from all of the rapid and non-stop evolution? You and everyone else in the world now holds it in the palm of their hands. Moore’s law.
Back then, things where a lot more simple. You had PC or Macintosh, Windows or Mac OS respectively. That’s it.
Nowadays, technology has progressed so far that there’s so many platforms to choose from, it’s no surprise that appreneurs are having difficulty on settling on the right one to suit their needs.
Many Faces and Interfaces, Choosing the Right Platform for Today’s Appreneur
Android, iOS, Windows 7 (now going to 8), and Blackberry OS. Those are your choice. Other’s are simply too irrelevant to mention.
| Period | Android | iOS | Windows Phone | BlackBerry OS | Others |
| Q2 2014 | 84.7% | 11.7% | 2.5% | 0.5% | 0.7% |
| Q2 2013 | 79.6% | 13.0% | 3.4% | 2.8% | 1.2% |
| Q2 2012 | 69.3% | 16.6% | 3.1% | 4.9% | 6.1% |
| Q2 2011 | 36.1% | 18.3% | 1.2% | 13.6% | 30.8% |
Source: IDC, 2014 Q2
Latest reports from the IDC’s World Wide Phone Tracker have report that the industry of the smart phone has hit an all time new high! 300 million units shipped world wide in just the second quarter of 2014 alone – a milestone in the industry. This was not only in line with their forecast, but is also expected to continue and see growth in the coming years as smartphone expansion reaches new and untouched emerging markets such as Brazil, India, and Russia.
What’s interesting to note is that, in this very same quarter, Android hit an all time new high in total overall worldwide market penetration.
85%.
Yup! You read that right. Eighty-five percent – a solid B according to today’s world of education and grading standards. That means that if you where to hand pick 10 random friends, 8 to 9 of them are owners of an Android handset. 850 of your “so called” 1000s of friends on Facebook probably share and post updates about their oh-so-exciting-life on an Android hands set, and for you as an appreneur, that means that there is an 85% chance of getting your idea in front of 85% of the world’s faces (in the smart phone world that is).
With such an outrageous number, it’s quite obvious whose clearly the winner in this battle for smart phone world domination – Android. But just going by this number alone isn’t enough to justify claims to solely develop just for the Android platform. Because in pop culture, reign supreme another hand set that takes the smartphone world by storm. With just a simple hint or rumor of their coming and latest iteration, they have the world and social media talking the buzz. They have people lining up days and maybe even weeks before an initial product release. They have a loyal user base that wouldn’t even dare turn a cheek, even if their product had mistakes and is weak. And best of all, for you as an appreneur, they give a shit to have quality apps and quality developers.
Enter, Apple’s iPhone and iOS
In a recent study, conducted by Benedict Evans (Q2 2014), numbers are showing that while Android dominates the world by market share, Apple pays out more to it’s developers when compared to Android.
More than two folds to be exact. This means that while indeed, Android has the exposure and covers the ground, it’s users are spending, and developers are making less than half of that on iOS, all while having more than not 2, not 3, not even 4,
BUT 7X
that of the user base found on iOS (12% market share compared to Android’s 85% (Q2 2014)).
You must also take into consideration what kind of app is it that you’re going to develop. Are you looking to create apps as side projects, for fun, and hobby? Or are you looking to stake a claim in these markets and make a killing with your innovative and intriguing idea? With the latter, this blurs the line between the choices more, as you have to take into consideration the difference not just on the software side, but with hardware and availablity of features as well. Because while iOS may run only on Apple’s iPhones and iPads, no two devices are identical. And let’s not even get into the mass fragmentation from the numerious manufacturers and software developers of Android…That’s another story in itself.
Oh! And about Windows 7/8, and Blackberry OS, Windows still has yet to really make a name for itself in the smartphone world, and Blackberry is aimed for at business professionals. And even then, professionals are slowly migrating over to the other two leading competitors.
What’s your platform of choice? And why?
