Should I become a Native iOS or Android app developer?

Now this is a question lot of recent graduates and college students have asked me. First of all both of the Operating systems(OS) are marvels of engineering, let us understand a few things before we tackle the question.

Target Audience:

1. Recent college graduates and you have picked up a few courses related to the fundamentals of programming and are good in one of many programming languages. You should have good enough clarity on computer science fundamentals.
2. College students who have picked up a few courses related to fundamentals of programming and are good in one of many programming languages. You feel that you have good enough understanding of fundamentals of computer science.
3. Any person at any stage of their life who have started to ponder on the idea of software development for mobile devices. You have already invested at least a year in computer science fundamentals. Remember journey can longer than you anticipated.

User base/Market share

1. Android captures almost 70–75% of the world’s market and iOS being distant 20–25%.
2. Android device prices approximately range from sub $100/₹5000 to $2000/₹ 150000. So you see for every stratum of economy Android devices can be found and they try to provide a similar software experience to everyone, of course, higher-end gets better software experience but the crux of the matter is almost all applications run on all devices.
3. On the other hand iOS phone typically ranges from almost $300/₹ 30000 — $2000/₹ 150000. You might get a better deal in a refurbished or second-hand market. iOS phones are generally superior in terms of software and hardware quality. Although the range I mentioned is as broad as Android but in the market, at most, you will see 2–3 choices in that price range.

Why consumer would choose Android over iOS

1. A plethora of choices in every price band.
2. Strong app ecosystem of free apps.
3. More features.
4. Everyone around you might use an Android phone.
5. A great choice for a price-conscious market. Apple cost barrier is high at times.

Why consumer would choose iOS over Android

1. Better quality of hardware and software ecosystem.
2. The device stays relevant for 6–7 years. iPhone 6 got a software upgrade for 6 years, even my iPhone 5s which is not updated for the last 2 years run handsomely.
3. Works well with other Apple devices.
4. Pride in owning the Apple brand.
5. Good quality applications but most good quality applications which are not available on Android play-store is not free.

Job Market

1. More Android developers than iOS developers in the market. This is basically due to the fact that to start learning iOS development you need macOS and iPhone and this creates a barrier for most people.
2. Generally, iOS/iPad developers have better opportunities. In my experience, iOS developers are paid more handsomely than Android developers.

Challenges

1. In the Android world, OEM(original equipment manufacturers) like Samsung, LG etc customise Android OS provided by Google and use different permutations and combinations of hardware and software in their devices. This creates a huge challenge for Android developers to make sure their app runs consistently across different OEM devices. In iOS, no such challenges, as Apple focus is only on a few devices and they are able to control quality much better than Google as Apple owns both Software and hardware of their devices.
2. As you understand by now Android world is fragmented due to different OEMs. It is further fragmented due to the low upgradability of the Android OS version. If Google has released a new Android OS then it takes some time a year for an OEM to upgrade existing devices in the market. For low-end devices, OEM basically does not provide any updates. Now as an app developer you have additional headache of maintaining different permutations & combinations in your applications.
3. In iOS no fragmentation of the kind I mentioned in point 2 above. Apple releases upgrade for all of their phones simultaneously and all users upgrade very very fast. As an app developer if you support the only latest and previous version of iOS in your app then you will still be able to reach 99% of your iOS customers.
4. Apple has a price barrier. You need a decent MacBook/Mac mini and an iPhone to start learning development. In Android price, the barrier is almost non-existent. You can use any of your modern computers be it windows/Linux/macOS to start Android app development.

How can you defeat the Apple price barrier?

1. Buy a mac mini with a decent configuration. Pick the base configuration (8Gb Ram/256Gb SSD) and you are good to roll. It will cost you around $600/₹ 60,000. If possible you should upgrade to at least 16GB ram.
2. If Apple would not have introduced the Apple M1 chip in 2020 I would have recommended buying any 1 to 2-year-old MacBook/Mac mini in the second-hand market but this recommendation is not suitable when Apple has started the transition to their own silicon and it beats old Apple intel based computers by a huge margin in terms of performance. So I would suggest staying away from any intel based Apple computers but if you are getting any M1 based computers please go ahead.
3. Buy a new iPhone SE/XR/11 instead of the latest iPhone 13 at this point. You can get a sweeter deal in the second-hand market.

My Answer to the original question:

As an Engineering Manager of a mobile team, I would suggest starting with iOS app development for the below reasons:

1. Apple provides a great development experience. Be it your MacOS on which you are developing iOS applications and be it software development experience in terms of iOS APIs stability and IDE (read Xcode), overall Apple provides a pleasant experience.
2. Apple presents less stupid challenges than Android for a Software developer as mentioned above. Having said that it does mean you will face fewer challenges in iOS development. To develop a good iOS application it will need your hard work, passion and intelligence which is equally needed to develop Android applications, it is just that Apple provides a distraction-free software development experience.

But…, if you are looking to target a market like India which has high Android penetration then it would be unwise of you to launch the iOS application first.

Also in some cases hybrid technologies like React native, flutter can be a better choice and that discussion is for some time later.

Substack story link: https://tarunchawla.substack.com/p/should-i-become-a-native-ios-or-android