App Store Comparison: Cheat Sheet

There are many important questions which are faced by companies while developing their mobile apps and one of the most important ones is which particular platform and app store they should target for most effective market penetration. Apart from choosing the right partner for mobile application development, choosing the correct app store platform can help your app break new ground and reach out to multiple new users in a short time.

Clients are always confused about which platform to develop on and also whether to go desktop or mobile. They also worry about whether their app should target Android, iOS or Windows separately, or develop a single-app-multiple-platform solution. It is very important for every company to analyze the target market, study the pros and cons of each platform and then make a decision as to which one suits them the best.

Things to Consider before Choosing the Right App Platform

The most important goal in mind for app developers has to be to provide a great user experience and functionality for the audience of your app. Developers should therefore consider the following questions before beginning development of the app:

• Who is the target audience (internal or consumer public)?
• What functionality is required to support the application?
• Are your users sometimes disconnected and need the app to run offline?
• What skills does your current development team have?
• What data and web services are required to support the application?
• Are there requirements for device integration, such as use of the device's GPS, compass, media, calendar, contacts, text messaging, notifications, and so on?

App Store Comparison: Google Play vs. App Store vs. Windows Store

Here is a comparison of App store apps vs Play store apps vs Windows store apps to help you analyze and take a better decision in choosing the right platform for your app:

Which One to Choose: Android or iOS or Windows?

The above table clearly shows that in spite of Android ruling the smartphone market, other platforms like iOS and Windows are slowly growing in their own sector by bringing in different opportunities and user experiences to their customers. As a result, selection of the right platform still remains a question mark. However, here are a few tips that can help you differentiate between the different platforms:

• Android Application Development

  As per the above numbers, Android smartphones are ruling the market, and therefore selecting this platform can help your company target a larger audience. Also, Android mobile technology has grown because of Google's acquisition and their efforts. Android is extremely popular because it is open source and requires low investment while promising high returns on the said investment.
  For developers, Android is much easier to integrate if they already have a web or mobile application. This helps in easy customization of the mobile app according to your business requirements. The biggest disadvantage is that since it's an open source platform, privacy and security are a big issue, thereby necessitating extra attention during app development.

• iOS Application Development

  Irrespective of the open source platform of Android, Apple earns more revenue from iPhone and iPad sales as compared to what Google earns from Android, which is about 90% of all dollars spent on mobile devices. Customers using Apple devices are willing to spend more on apps as compared to their Android counterparts. Apple has also marketed their products in the premium brand category which means customers have higher expectations since it is a more secure and premium platform.
  However, there are few disadvantages to this platform. It takes a lot of time for the app to get approved when compared to the Google app store. An iPhone also cannot run two applications simultaneously on the same screen, although it is possible now on an iPad. Also, iOS does not permit you to run outside applications in the background and is a heavily locked ecosystem; thereby ensuring your app will need several permissions before it goes live on the App store. In spite of these disadvantages, iPhone is still growing its market share, especially in the developed countries.

• Windows Application Development

  Although Windows is ranked 3rd in the chart, it's not far behind in the mobile app race. With the upgrade of Windows 10 by Microsoft, the competition has become tighter for market penetration. Windows 10 is now available in 190 countries and provides app developers the many benefits of the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). UWP has windows runtime model which was introduced by Microsoft when Windows 8.1 was introduced. With this feature one can install a single app onto a wide range of devices running Windows. The same code can also be reused from other platforms to develop a particular Windows 10 application.

  The usual comparison of Apple store vs Windows store and Google Play vs Windows store has been going on for some time as developers continue to find building apps for different platforms difficult, costly and time consuming. Therefore businesses should ideally not only look into their app development requirements, but also consider various factors such as device market share, app store guidelines, easy of updating, etc. while choosing their app platform of choice.

Choose the Right Platform for your Mobile App

Flatworld Solutions has been providing high-quality mobile app development services to clients around the world. One of the major concerns of our clients is choosing the right platform for their mobile app. We help you in building an app which not only provides a great user experience at cost-effective prices, but also works flawlessly on the platform we help you choose. Read our article on App store optimization to learn how you can optimize your apps for a particular app store.

If you have any kind of difficulty in choosing the right platform for your mobile app, feel free to write to us or talk to one of our representatives and we will be more than happy to help you out.