Android or iOS – the Choice Is Difficult for Building Enterprise Mobile Apps

If you are an entrepreneur, looking to get a business mobile app, the first challenge that you would confront would be about selecting the operating system for your mobile app. The question of whether to go with Apple's iOS or select Google's Android is enough to make you run your brain like never before. Note that these two jointly rule over more than 90 percent of the mobile OS market and this fact makes them the toughest competitors of each other. Though, Twitter and Yahoo had their operating systems in the market well before Google but the arrival of Android changed the entire market dynamics completely and leaving business owners in a bigger quandary of which platform to choose. In this write-up, I will compare iOS and Android on various factors before judging which one the best for your app venture.

Revenue versus visibility – Android offers best visibility based on absolute market share numbers, despite latest reports claiming that the Apple app store generated 73 percent of app revenue while 36 percent came from Google play. Despite knowing that by Apple earned five times greater revenue than Google, it would be beneficial to choose different game plans for each platform. Take whatsapp for example – the most popular messaging app is available for free on Android platform which gives it a massive traction as compared to Apple users, who need to pay USD 0.99 for the same app. A business owner will have to build a clever strategy that allows him to strike a balance between visibility and revenue. The golden rule is the more visible you are, the more you are earning.

Availing benefits of fragmentation – Developing apps for Google Android is far tougher because the developer has to consider more than 400 different types of mobile phones running on Android OS. On the other hand, Apple has only few countable iPhones and iPads but by launching iOS 7, Apple too has stepped towards fragmentation and offer different features for different handsets. Thus, if your solution integrates the latest AirDrop any other feature of IOS7, it will not be available for Apple users who have older versions of Apple iPhones, iPads and iOS. Keeping this thing in mind, Android looks best to me as its features can run equally on every smart phone using your business mobile apps. For example, the features available in high-end phones will be available equally on low-end phones as well.  

Apprehending customer's usage – Thirdly, you should determine whether your customer prefers the Apple's services like iTunes or services offered by Google such as Maps, Gmail, Calendar and Google now. Another very important point for business owners to mull upon is the popular apps category on both platforms. For iOS users aged 25-34, the most popular category is sports followed by health and fitness category, music, media and entertainment. They also prefer to download lifestyle and shopping apps on a very large basis. Similarly, Android users of the same age group prefer personalization, entertainment, books and references.

CONCLUSION

As an intelligent business owner, before deciding any platform for your enterprise app, try to get as much information as possible about your customers and their preferences. This will simplify your decision of getting a platform for your app that gives it maximum exposure. Do not get carried away by what websites say about this, because that would leave you in no man's land without any decision. You should only go where your customers want you to go.