Develop for iPhone or Android

It is a tough choice knowing which platform when you start to develop a new application:

  • Symbian / J2ME - and capture the Nokia 40% share
  • Microsoft Mobile - and use older technology
  • iPhone - and reach a hip crowd
  • Google - cutting age wild frontier 
  • Risk - capture Blackberry's market for business 
After a decade of developing in the mobile area, read more, we have worked on all platforms accept Risk. We decided that we need to take into consideration the following:

  • Who are we developing for? (B2B or B2C)
  • What are our target market using?
  • What is everyone excited about?
  • What about the future?
  • How is the market changing?
There is no doubt about it, Apple make beautiful products, with an estimated 94% of people loving their iPad or iPhone. That means the remaining 6% do not hate the product they just like it. In fact what Apple has achieved is an emotional attachment to an inanimate object.


images curtsey of Google phone gallery and apple store (just the one from Apple)

We develop for iPhone and Android primarily today, these platofrms are easy to use and are going places. With the inclusion of iPads and Google pads, and companies such as the fashion giant Next developing a low cost Google Pad, you cannot sit back, but need your product swept up in the sea of excitement.

So back to the questions of reason

  • Who are we developing for? (B2B or B2C)
    • We develop mainly for Business to business
  • What are our target market using?
    • Blue chips
  • What is everyone excited about?
    • Google and Android, I see a lot of advertising for Blackberry but nothing for windows mobile and I think even less for Nokia. However iPhone and Google are constantly being talked about and people seem genuinely excited. In addition there are the new Pads coming out, which even windows seems to have missed out on the hype, especially as it looks like Asus will now build for Android, instead of Windows, that is a blow.
  • What about the future?
    • Short or long? Things are exciting and are changing so quickly. what is for sure is how many manufacturers are developing for Android, versus the single iPhone.
  • How is the market changing?
    • I do not see it going any way accept Google, there are just too many good companies behind them, Samsung, HTC, Motorola. This is enticing so many people to enter the market. Unlike Apple Google has opened the handset and pad market to manufacturers, this opens the playing field, similar to how Japan's Docomo was opened up. 
In summary Google has it right, they are opening the platform up to everyone. We all know you cant own the whole so, pick a part and do it well. Learn from the past, see why Japan got it right.

We will continue to build for Google and iPhone.