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Android users: how does App quality compare to iOS?
- Thread starter petvas
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I'm not really talking about exclusives though, it's stuff that just cant be done on iOS
aside from the exclusive games (yes we all know ios takes the gaming cake), the others have ways of duplicating the functionality on android. sure they may be more elegant. essentially everything (read: functionality) that is possible on ios is possible on android (save for some musician apps that require ios' better audio latency) while vice versa is not true
you asked for one app, pushbullet is definitely better on android
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Another app that I love is Talon, the best twitter client I have ever seen. I had tweetbot on iOS before, and all other major twitter clients, but Talon is better. It looks really great and it has ton of customization options to choose from.
I can't test it because the only mail I use is Gmail, on every platform (iOS , android and WP ).
I found amusing that the best gmail client seems to be the one on iOS ....
aside from the poor attachment support on ios, which was one of the main reasons i left
google cant do anything about that though
google cant do anything about that though
I can play the same game: Tweetbot, LinkedIn cardmunch, MegaReader, VSCO Cam, Kickstarter, loungeBuddy, diptic PDQ, games like plants vs zombies 2, garage band, iMovie , Keynote, pages, Reeder ... There are exclusive on iOS ...
That isn't my point. We were comparing the two stores. Reporting exclusives is futile and take the discussion nowhere.
To defuse the topic a little bit: the app I'm missing more on android is KYMS. There is nothing similar in Android. Go and search what it does
Plants vs Zombies 2 has been on Android for ages btw.
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But this actually speaks more to the question at hand. Of course one won't find apps such as Tasker and Airdroid on iOS because they rely on functionality not available. What's Android's excuse for the apps Max(IT) mentioned that are exclusive to iOS? Surely they don't take advantage of functionality only found on iOS?
The point being made is that while yes, for the most part the quality of apps on both platforms is comparable if not equal, more times than not, if there is going to be a high profile app exclusive to only one platform, it'll more likely be on the App Store vs. Google Play.
To answer the OP's question. Of all the apps that I've used that are found on both Android and iOS phones, I've found very little difference in quality/functionality. If anything, iOS apps may be a bit more polished visually but even that is becoming less common over time.
I hear you, if there is going to be an exclusive - it will be on iOS.
I'm not going to delve into providing alternative suggestions that provide functionality of each of his listed apps. though, I can all but guarantee there is an android app by a different developer that covers the tasks of everything on that list. I have yet to see functionality provided by an app on iOS that is not available on android, save for musician apps. Yes, those particular apps created by those particular developers are not available.
You ask what androids excuse is and I would say that it is because those developer/s dont care
even proprietary stuff like airplay is possible on android with allcast, though that does remind me - facetime and imessage cannot be recreated on android - though alternatives are available there too (albeit not as polished - imessage replacements particularly)
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I recently had my work phone upgraded from a BB to an iPhone. I have an Android phone for personal use. As this is the first time I am actually using an iPhone myself (and not fixing someone else's), I took this opportunity try out a few apps on the iPhone just to compare it with the same apps I regularly use on Android. The apps I tried are Pulse, Yahoo! Weather, Google+ and GasBuddy.
Pulse is a reader app. You select a bunch of sources and the articles are presented to you inside this app instead of having to go to each individual web site. I would say that the Android version is a little better. It has one feature that I use that isn't available in the iOS version. That feature is opening an article up in a browser by default. I can do this on the Android version, but there is no option to do this on the iOS version. Some sites only show a few paragraphs of articles when viewed on Pulse. I would have to open the article in web browser mode which takes another step to read the whole article. On Android, I can set it so that all articles from a particular source is opened in web mode. I cannot do this in the iOS version. Other than this, both are the same in quality.
Yahoo! Weather is a weather app (obviously). Both apps are of the same quality. There are slight differences between the two for some reason. The iOS version has a text synopsis of the forecast for the next day or so which is absent from the Android version. Another difference is that on the Android version, if I choose to view the 10-day outlook in the long range forecast, it remembers it and every time I look at the long range forecast it shows 10 days. On iOS, it always reverts to the 5-day long range forecast. I cannot get it to show the 10-day forecast by default. I would say overall, they are even.
Google+ is Google's social network app. You read posts by other people and can comment on the posts. One thing you can do on the Android version is reply to someone's comment. When you do this, it automatically does a mention to the comment's author. The mention will notify the comment's author which will likely send a notification to the author of the comment. With the iOS version, there is no such feature. You can add a comment and then you have to manually mention the person by typing a '+' followed by his name. Other than this, both are pretty much the same.
GasBuddy is an app that you can use to check gas prices of gas stations near you. The gas price info is reported by other users, so you can also report gas prices. The Android version has a feature that allows you to create a favourites list of gas stations. When I open the app, it shows my favourites and the prices at these stations. In iOS, there is no favourites list feature. I have to move the map over to each location where my favourites are to check the price there. Very annoying that this feature is not available. Other than that, the quality of the apps are about the same.
From the apps I have tried and did a direct comparison, I would say that the apps are slightly better on Android. Even if I didn't count Google+, I would still say that apps are slightly better on Android due to the missing features I see in the iOS version. All of the iOS apps have the latest version as of this month. The Android apps I use are mostly running older versions as I generally don't update apps unless there is a feature or bug fix I really want or need. Only the Google+ app on Android is running the latest one as I did update this one this month.
Pulse is a reader app. You select a bunch of sources and the articles are presented to you inside this app instead of having to go to each individual web site. I would say that the Android version is a little better. It has one feature that I use that isn't available in the iOS version. That feature is opening an article up in a browser by default. I can do this on the Android version, but there is no option to do this on the iOS version. Some sites only show a few paragraphs of articles when viewed on Pulse. I would have to open the article in web browser mode which takes another step to read the whole article. On Android, I can set it so that all articles from a particular source is opened in web mode. I cannot do this in the iOS version. Other than this, both are the same in quality.
Yahoo! Weather is a weather app (obviously). Both apps are of the same quality. There are slight differences between the two for some reason. The iOS version has a text synopsis of the forecast for the next day or so which is absent from the Android version. Another difference is that on the Android version, if I choose to view the 10-day outlook in the long range forecast, it remembers it and every time I look at the long range forecast it shows 10 days. On iOS, it always reverts to the 5-day long range forecast. I cannot get it to show the 10-day forecast by default. I would say overall, they are even.
Google+ is Google's social network app. You read posts by other people and can comment on the posts. One thing you can do on the Android version is reply to someone's comment. When you do this, it automatically does a mention to the comment's author. The mention will notify the comment's author which will likely send a notification to the author of the comment. With the iOS version, there is no such feature. You can add a comment and then you have to manually mention the person by typing a '+' followed by his name. Other than this, both are pretty much the same.
GasBuddy is an app that you can use to check gas prices of gas stations near you. The gas price info is reported by other users, so you can also report gas prices. The Android version has a feature that allows you to create a favourites list of gas stations. When I open the app, it shows my favourites and the prices at these stations. In iOS, there is no favourites list feature. I have to move the map over to each location where my favourites are to check the price there. Very annoying that this feature is not available. Other than that, the quality of the apps are about the same.
From the apps I have tried and did a direct comparison, I would say that the apps are slightly better on Android. Even if I didn't count Google+, I would still say that apps are slightly better on Android due to the missing features I see in the iOS version. All of the iOS apps have the latest version as of this month. The Android apps I use are mostly running older versions as I generally don't update apps unless there is a feature or bug fix I really want or need. Only the Google+ app on Android is running the latest one as I did update this one this month.
You hit the nail on the head right here. It's a well documented fact the iOS users are willing to spend far more money on apps than their Android counterparts and until this changes, we will continue to see developers focus first and foremost on iOS version of apps. I don't blame them--who wouldn't?
As much as we love to tout the openness of Android vs. the closed ecosystem of Apple, the irony is that this very same situation is what somewhat contributes to this discrepancy.
That's all fair and true especially the last sentence
I guess what I'm trying to say is that those devs don't matter. There are others picking up the slack. I still give the edge to ios, but android is quite worthy and the unique functiolities erode some of that edge, for me at least.
I would say it's also likely a lot easier to develop an app for iOS since there aren't 1,435,678 different flavors of phones makes and models and OS's to target.
Get it right for iOS, test it with that crowd and if it's a success, tackle the Android market.
How about you post links to all these 'well documented facts' then to back your claim up? Because I fine iOS users to be a bunch of freeloaders too when you look at the highest grossing games or the top ten apps, the majority of them are alway's freemium games.
Had to labor long and hard to find this info.
Here are the top four links when doing a Google search for 'iphone vs android app sales'--don't want to be accused of cherry picking the articles. I believe all but one are as recent as Nov 2013 with the exception being a year old.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybra...s-market-share-but-apple-makes-all-the-money/
http://techland.time.com/2013/04/16/ios-vs-android/
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13...ers-5x-more-revenue-per-download-than-android
http://www.slate.com/blogs/business...id_developers_see_a_socioeconomic_divide.html
These charts from the second article should make it simple enough for you to understand.
Is that enough info for you or do you still think your anecdotal evidence carries more weight?
Attachments
http://readwrite.com/2014/01/08/app-store-sales-google-play-android
Apple's App store brings in five times as much money despite Android having a much larger user base. It's not even close.
There are tons of ways to slant that, depending on if you want to make it favorable to Apple (Apple users aren't as cheap as Android users), favorable to Android (there are more devs making quality free apps for Android), or neutral (Apple products are generally more expensive, so it's likely owners of Apple products aren't on as tight of a budget).
Now, to actually address the question? They're equal. I transitioned from Android to iOS last December and honestly there's no significant difference. There are scads of awesome apps on both sides that will do ANYTHING you need them to. I never found myself unable to find an app I wanted on either platform. Switching is a bit difficult only because once you're used to one side you know what apps are good, but that's all.
EDIT: also your quote makes no sense, dude. If they're the highest GROSSING apps, that means they're EARNING THE MOST MONEY. So if the highest GROSSING apps are freemium games, it means people are downloading them and SPENDING MONEY ON THEM, lol.
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Like I said above, if you read the anecdotal evidence it doesn't make sense anyway. The highest grossing apps means the apps that have earned the most money, so it doesn't work to claim that as evidence that iOS users are freeloaders.
Also, do you understand what top grossing actually means? They make the most money. Not sure how those apps are making the most money if all of their customers are freeloaders.
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Like I said above, if you read the anecdotal evidence it doesn't make sense anyway. The highest grossing apps means the apps that have earned the most money, so it doesn't work to claim that as evidence that iOS users are freeloaders.
Beat me to the punch.
iOS gains 76% of it's revenue from IAP's, of which Apple had to refund 32 million back to the people recently, because of stupid parents. It will be interesting to see how the change in IAP process changes the app revenue divide between iOS and Android.http://readwrite.com/2014/01/08/app-store-sales-google-play-android
Apple's App store brings in five times as much money despite Android having a much larger user base. It's not even close.
There are tons of ways to slant that, depending on if you want to make it favorable to Apple (Apple users aren't as cheap as Android users), favorable to Android (there are more devs making quality free apps for Android), or neutral (Apple products are generally more expensive, so it's likely owners of Apple products aren't on as tight of a budget).
Now, to actually address the question? They're equal. I transitioned from Android to iOS last December and honestly there's no significant difference. There are scads of awesome apps on both sides that will do ANYTHING you need them to. I never found myself unable to find an app I wanted on either platform. Switching is a bit difficult only because once you're used to one side you know what apps are good, but that's all.
EDIT: also your quote makes no sense, dude. If they're the highest GROSSING apps, that means they're EARNING THE MOST MONEY. So if the highest GROSSING apps are freemium games, it means people are downloading them and SPENDING MONEY ON THEM, lol.
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Like I said above, if you read the anecdotal evidence it doesn't make sense anyway. The highest grossing apps means the apps that have earned the most money, so it doesn't work to claim that as evidence that iOS users are freeloaders.
Currently (as of this month, not the 5x stat you posted from nearly a year ago) Apple has 85% more app revenue over Android, which is a decrease from the YoY trend. Q2 should be interesting stats.
So at best, Android is still just better than half of Apple's store revenue, despite Android having an 80% market share. Not exactly helping the case, pal.
Look, you can slice it and dice it however you want. The fact remains that user-to-user Apple owners spend a LOT more in the app store, and the fact that Google "catching up" means that Apple's store is "only" almost pulling in twice as much money despite having 20% the user base is proof of this.
Android user base is 80% , but what is so often left out of these articles is the fact that app revenue for Android does not include Amazon app store, none of China and any forked Android OS/app store like say Samsungs.
I'm not saying Android makes more than ios, but it isn't the rosy picture US based analyst like to pretend. Be a realist and read between the lines. The truth often lurks in that gray area.
Agreed... The amazon app store alone mist likely pulls in a huge chunk of money.
Off topic but trust me you want to look into this.
Please before you jump to the M8 wagon take a picture of say a magazine or something with a good colour contrast and compare.I thought you getting a M8 as a second phone.... But that instantly changed my mind.... So will stick with my 2 - iPhones 5s
Please before you jump to the M8 wagon take a picture of say a magazine or something with a good colour contrast and compare.I thought you getting a M8 as a second phone.... But that instantly changed my mind.... So will stick with my 2 - iPhones 5s
Please before you jump to the M8 wagon take a picture of say a magazine or something with a good colour contrast and compare.I thought you getting a M8 as a second phone.... But that instantly changed my mind.... So will stick with my 2 - iPhones 5s
If the camera is important to you and you don't have a real one, then I agree. If you need the camera only for web stuff, then the M8 is more than ok.
And don't forget that many more Android apps earned based on ads. I see apps that are free on Android but have no free version on Appstore.
Bottom line is if you check the revenue most came from games app (in-app of games). Most other apps (even popular ones) are just bottom feeder. Other than games, I dont really see many app developers (other than games) or those sponsored by Apple really have any incentive to be exclusive on App Store.
But hey, for those kids (or young at heart
), they can brag about Apple appstore has more exclusive apps (a.k.a games).
And don't forget that many more Android apps earned based on ads. I see apps that are free on Android but have no free version on Appstore.
Bottom line is if you check the revenue most came from games app (in-app of games). Most other apps (even popular ones) are just bottom feeder. Other than games, I dont really see many app developers (other than games) or those sponsored by Apple really have any incentive to be exclusive on App Store.
But hey, for those kids (or young at heart
I honestly don't care which app store generates more revenue, but rather that we see the same quality across platforms. Unfortunately, reality is that presently, iOS generates significantly more income for developers so if push comes to shove, they're looking to iOS first.
Most recent example that comes to mind--I was listening to the Engadget podcast from last week which focused almost exclusively on the app Distiller. At one point of the discussion, the team responsible for the app were asked if they had plans to create a version for Windows Phone. After a few chuckles, they very diplomatically stated (I'm paraphrasing, of course) that basically, they have limited resources and they have to put those resources towards the platforms with the greatest visibility and revenue opportunities--so basically, they had no current plans for WP. They were in fact excited that they just had released their Android version to the Play Store. One guess which platform had their app first? (and by a full three months, and already with 2 updates)
Another example that personifies the situation. I don't have any specific numbers but I'd guess it's pretty safe to assume that Evernote is likely the most popular cross platform note taking application. Head on over to Evernote's website and take a look at their App Center. I believe these are a collection of apps that work in some capacity with Evernote's suite of apps. First click on those for Android and then click on the collection listed for the iPhone or iPad (there is no Android tablet collection)--pretty significant difference.
Again, I'm not trying to advocate iOS over Android, just illustrate that while the difference in availability and quality between the apps for both platforms has diminished dramatically, there is still a pretty significant gap, especially from a developers point of view. It didn't really impact my decision to use one platform over another (at least for my phone) as I have pretty basic app needs and rely on fairly populars apps generally available on both platforms.
Sharing is horrible in iOS. For instance, You can share photo to BBM chat or groups directly from Android gallery. In iOS, sharing from Photos app is limited to built in service like messages, email, twitter, facebook, and flickr.
But thats an OS feature and has nothing to do with Android/iOS apps.