Android development: Advantages & Disadvantages
This is a brief summary of the pros and cons of iOS and Android applications.
From a marketing point of view, you have to break free on both platforms, unless you have a very impregnable technique that you don’t have.
Android development – Advantages
Faster to release/patch as there is no forced “acceptance” port on you – ideal for a coin-based product, i.e. a minimum viable product or MVP
Larger installation base: it has a larger population of people with androids (especially outside the United States).
Easy to develop using existing PCs and Eclipse, i.e. non-specialized hardware
There are no restrictions on what you develop, so you are open to new ideas
Two key markets to send to: Google and Amazon, which means you can have more chances of success
No restrictions on beta/alpha distribution
Android development – Disadvantages
Fragmented devices – a lot to support (screen size, performance, sensors)
Fragmented Operating system: Many users will be on a variety of operating system versions (you may choose not to support older operating systems/devices).
Two key markets to send to: Google and Amazon – this potentially means more fragmentation to support any custom API
There is no double checking of the final application – so everyone is with you (it’s also with Apple, but you could just detect a real showstopper)
The emulator is not as good as iOS (it doesn’t matter how to get the application on your device is trival), and Android devices are usually cheaper than iOS
The main problem is that there is still a shortage of good Android developers. You will find enough people who understand the basics well enough, but you start asking them more and more complex questions in the interview and you really start to see the fluff.
Another problem is that most Android developers (even iOS developers) are too attached to the platform. This is just one of the features common to developers. It is a kind of apartheid or untouchability on the technological platform that is practiced. Android people don’t want to do anything other than Android development.
Probably at the beginning of your career for the first 2 years if you do, that’s fine. But the world only sees you as an Android or iOS developer. They see you as mobile developers. The more experience you gain, the more important it is to get rid of this dogma about technologies and frameworks and be more willing to learn and adapt to changing scenarios. The world of technology is very dynamic and continues to change. What was happening in the early 2000s is now applicable to artificial intelligence (machine learning)
If you cling to one thing, you will become irrelevant very soon. I’m not saying this to scare you, but it’s the reality of the times and the industry we work in.
However, if you are an excellent developer – not just an Android developer – you don’t have to worry. Just keep polishing and improving your skills. Be very good at what you do. Just try to go beyond the curve as much as possible. The rest of the things will be solved.
There was a period when targeting only iOS or Android was an option, but I think now there is no option, you have to deal with both.
