For developers, there are a lot of advantages to creating an Android-based app. The software is free to use and also simple. Your app is accessible for different devices, and so your potential market is a lot higher. It’s tempting to ignore other operating systems like Apple iOS. In this post, we’re going to explain why that might be a mistake for you.
You Might Not Have Access to as Many Users as You Think
At the moment, China leads the way when it comes to how many apps are downloaded. In 2017, 79.3 billion app downloads occurred in China. The country with the next highest number was India with 12.1 billion. Clearly, China is a significant market for apps.
What does this have to do with the platform you use when you design your apps? Not a whole lot. Android apps will work in China. The problem, though, is that the Google Play Store does not. When China cracked down and started limiting internet access, Google, and the Google Play Store became a casualty.
So, if the Chinese market is part of your target market, you should consider creating an app on a different platform as well.
You Should Check Localized Stats
Globally, there’s no question that the Android OS comes out on top. It has the lion’s share of the global market, with 72.3% of devices running on it.
In the United States, however, that dominance is nowhere near as well established. In the States, 62.01% of devices are iOS-based. So, it’s wise to carefully define your target market and where they live before developing your app.
You’ll Have to Cater to a Wider Range of Devices
Granted, there are quite a few models of iPhones, iPads, and so on out there. That said, when you take the number of devices on the market as a whole, things become trickier. You have several different models and makes to contend with.
This does open up a greater number of potential downloads, but it also makes it a lot harder to design the perfect, glitch-free app because of the increased number of parameters to consider.
This is also something that makes testing a lot more difficult. With iOS-based systems, you’re automatically prompted to install updates. Android devices, on the other hand, may not have this feature. This makes things harder for you as a developer—you’re working with devices that could be running on several different versions of the Android OS.
Final Notes
So, do you scrap your plans to develop your app on Android? That’s not what we’re saying. What we’re saying you need to carefully consider who you’re creating the app for. If you want to cash in on the Chinese market, you probably need to create an Android app.
It might make sense to switch to another operating system or to potentially consider creating a second app using another operating system as well.
