If you have decided to create a mobile game, then choosing between Android and iOS systems might be a bit of a hassle. Both systems being different in various aspects like design, development, marketing strategy, etc lead to enhanced confusion for the developers. Only a leading android game development company can do this task without any hassle. Let’s ease the difficulty by comparing the two renowned development systems.
Android operating system was introduced by Android and later Google procured this platform. It is a free OS used for most of the smartphones. Development of android games refers to producing products related to entertainment for the devices running on the Android OS. Runner: Alto’s Odyssey, Tank Hero: Laser War, Shooter: Smash Hit, Asphalt Nitro etc are some popular games on Android.
The American company, Apple gave birth to the iOS operating system, which also produces all the gadgets working on iOS. iOS game development means the process of creating products related to entertainment for the devices operating on the iOS operating system. Oceanhorn 2, Sky: Children of the Light, Grindstone, Death Hall etc are some popular games on iOS platform.
The producers of android are making an effort to develop devices of low cost along with adding as much functionality as possible. The android devices exceed the no. of iOS devices in the market. According to Statcounter, Android users are 76% of the global market share, whereas iOS users account for only 19%. However, this is not the sole aspect to consider while selecting between these two systems.
The Android system earlier provided an integrated development environment named Free Eclipse Model. However, Google launched a new IDE, Android Studio, in 2013. It is a proprietary tool with a wide range of characteristics like cross-platform service, support for various programming languages, library with numerous kinds of templates and components that fasten the development process among many other features. Android game development studio allows the developers to quickly create multiple versions of their app, for different devices and has a Gradle-based build system.
On the other hand, for the iOS platform, there is an XCode tool which is an integrated development environment created by Apple. It offers an easy-to-use interface with auto-complete support and various other features that ease the development process. Also, iOS runs only on a MacBook while an android game development studio can be installed on any computer. So, it becomes necessary for you to spend on a MacBook if you choose to create a game on an iOS system.
If the development speed of Android and iOS are compared, then in this case iOS wins. It’s because iOS provides a faster testing process than Android systems.
The duration of testing increases in Android because of various factors like its slower emulators than iOS simulators, performing additional coding due to the wordy nature of the Java language in Android. Another reason is that on an Android platform, the programmer has to develop the layout manually using XML, and even after correcting the bugs, the game needs to be tested on several devices.
Android systems offer Java language to its programmers and sometimes Kotlin. Programmers are gradually shifting from Java to Kotlin, a much easier and easy to read language. Hence Kotlin might soon replace the Java language.
In the iOS systems, the coding is written in Swift language which is easier and faster to learn than Java. Java language has high readability and it takes relatively more time to code the applications. Thus, the learning curve is shorter for iOS than that for Android systems. Also, earlier iOS programmers used to code in the Objective-C programming language when iOS was not in the mainstream.
Statcounter study shows that the market share of the Android operating system is more in Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and South America. On the other hand, the study suggested that the people preferring iOS reside mostly in North America, Western Europe, and Australia.
Also, you must consider the fact that iOS users are more financially sound and perform in-app purchases relatively more than the Android system users. If your monetization strategy is an Ad-based model, then selecting Android development will be the appropriate decision.
When your game is ready to be published on the store be it Google Play Store or iOS’s App Store, you are required to buy a developer account. Google play asks for a one-time fee of $25 and after that, you have access to your developer account for a lifetime. During the review process, it will take you a few hours to publish your game on Google Play Store and you are not bound to any serious restrictions. In contrast, iOS publishers are required to pay $99 per year as the App Store subscription fees.
Secondly, you need to be patient as your game gets published on the store because the iOS store takes around two days. The App Store has a relatively more strict app moderation. This means even if you break a small rule, your game will get rejected from reaching your audience.
Also, if you want to keep all the generated revenue from in-app purchases, then you need to pay a 30% fee to the iOS store, whereas Google Play doesn’t offer any charges for this service.
Various factors come into play while deciding the best operating system for creating and developing your game. Juego Studios, offer end-to-end game development services for both Android and iOS platforms and various others as well. Juego Studios is a leading game development company that designs tailored products specific to our customers’ needs. Juego Studios use the latest, cutting-edge development technologies like Unity3D, Cocos2d-X, and Unreal to provide you with the best output of all times. Browse through the game development service section of Juego Studio’s website to gather more information. If you have any questions or queries, then post them here and receive a quick reply from Juego Studios.
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