The war between the two most popular operating systems, iOS and Android, is now being termed as the ecosystem war as the many aspects of consumer preferences kick in. Not very long ago, when you purchased a smartphone or a tablet, a smart, sleek, edgy design and the latest technology was enough to cut the cake, but now with an increased user base and evolutionary digitalization, software applications are become increasingly popular and play an important role in influencing the purchase pattern of these devices.
Android has evolved significantly since its launch, and has become a viable competitor to iOS with its latest releases. Earlier, software app developers preferred launching their apps on iOS rather than on Android because of higher returns and the presence of a uniform interface (unlike Android, which suffers from massive fragmentation issues); however, as the competition gets stiffer between iOS and Android, the scenario seems to be changing and though the monetary incentive to launch an app on Android is still lesser than that on iOS, software application developers are giving them equal preference.
Android has proved itself as an evolutionary operating system over the years and the app store just keeps getting better, especially since Google remodelled it and christened it as Google Play in March. Android now boasts of 700,000 apps, roughly equal to what Apple has to offer in its app store. Application developer companies such as Thinking Ape and Smule wouldn’t have dreamt of launching their apps on Android when it came into being about five years ago, however, they are now more than eager to do so. In fact, Smule launched one of its apps in July on both iOS and Android, and hopes to launch all apps developed by them in the same manner hereon.
The success of Android as a developer platform becomes more pronounced by the fact that several developers are now creating apps only for Android, such as Tap Dragon Park launched by Pocket Gem in April. The rising interest by app developers may be due to Android throwing up several high-end devices which have sold extremely well, like the Samsung Galaxy S III, which in turn gives developers an audience to target.
