10 Things to Consider when Choosing a Mobile Platform

Andrew Garkavyi,COO at Stanfy

How do I know?

• 20 people• 6 years in mobile• Custom mobile app design and dev• Over 60 apps • Specialized in iOS & Android• Live & breathe Agile, Scrum, Lean and XP

1. What happens on the market

Mobile devices market share

81%

13%

4% 2% 0%

Sales

AndroidiOSWin PhoneBlack BerryOthers

60% of all Android devices are cheap devices (around 200USD)

IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, November 12, 2013

Revenue

http://blog.appannie.com/app-annie-index-market-q3-2013/

2. Amount of devices

Not too much to worry about

There are a lot of them

3. Screens and resolutions

http://en.paperblog.com/users/smartadblog/

Frightening?

It is not that bad …

think about density groups

4. Operating systems

iOS version distribution

Android OS versions

Each previous major version support would cost you at least +20% of time (applicable to iOS too)

5. Open vs Closed

I can do everything I want…

not really!

If there is something missing,you do not need that at all

6. UI, Style…

It should be different

7. Phone to tablet

It may be relatively simple

Or more complex

8. Publishing in the markets

from 1 week AppStore/Markettime

4 hours

time consuming Development build distribution

simple

100 (unless enterprise)

Limit of test users No

Hard unless enterprise or 3rd party services

Ease of installation of dev build

Easy (install apk)

HockeyApp, TestFlight

9. Time to support all that

When you sum up all together

> 2%

10. Development costs

How much is that to build

• Core functionality can be done for 40% of time, features will eat the rest (animations, shadows…)

• Effort is approximately the same for iOS and Android

• Do one after another instead of 2 at same time

Conclusions

• Sometimes it may be worth to start with Android

• In many cases iOS is still a platform of the first choice to prove your concept

• It may take a lot time, so select wisely…