Android versus iOS

Is Android a better platform to develop games on or is iOS more lucrative?

Industry leaders feel that Android and iOS offer different benefits. Android is an open source platform and has an excellent API available for app development. iOS also has similar features. “Both mobile OS providers are maintaining marketplaces where people can easily add their apps and market them to millions of end users. Both providers have brought out excellent IDEs for app development. When it comes to user experience, iOS is rated a bit higher than Android. In the mobile domain, Android is more popular than iOS, but in the tablet industry, iOS is the dominant player,” shares Illyas.

Pradeep feels that at the end of the day, both are similar. Because today’s developer community is looking for multiplatform development instead of developing a game entirely on a single framework.

“Such games are called hybrid games. This hybrid model of games development uses HTML5 technology to the maximum level, and there are options to make use of the native frameworks to convert such games to any kind of platform instantly, via some process. In fact, of late, nearly 80 per cent of the developers are now getting converted, or rather, companies are shifting major manpower into HTML5-based technologies from native platforms. Though the Android and iOS platforms play a significant role in the market, HTML5 can fulfill many requirements. The native frameworks can take care of post-development work after the key logic is developed using HTML5. So this is the time for developing hybrid environments, not only for games, but even for mobile apps or the Web. Companies like TCS have already started implementing such methodologies,” says Pradeep.