The long-standing battle between Android and Apple continues to dominate the tech world. The battle over app placement is no different. As you begin to build a blueprint for your mobile app, it is important to consider whether your app will be available on Google Play or the Apple Store. Each platform uses a different programming language and requires different tools for a successful build. If you decide to utilize both platforms, your app will potentially need two different build processes. Let’s look at some of the differences:
Development
Developers on the Play Store have the ability to update their app whenever is necessary, unlike the strict rules of the App Store. The App Store is constantly updating and encouraging developers to update as well to stay relevant, however, the new build may not be instantly placed on the store. Google Play Store is more developer friendly, leading to a substantially larger number of both developers and apps. There is less risk in choosing to submit an app to Google Play because the approval rate is much higher than on the App Store. However, development on iOS is much faster than development for Google Play.
Revenue
When an app is placed on the App store, a developer earns 70% of the sales of the app. However, apple has created a reduced commission rate for small businesses or developers earning less than $1 million per year; this reduced rate is 15% compared to the normal 30%. In 2020, the App Store grew 32% reaching $19 billion in consumer spending, whereas the Google Play Store grew 33.8% and earned $10.3 billion.
Visibility
The search queries on the Google Play store are much more effective because Google will run the queries through all information available on a page including the descriptions. The App Store, on the other hand, compares queries against the keywords developers manually enter for search. However, the App Store is notorious for its extensive promotion via channels on the store including their trending categories.
Approval Process
One of the most notable differences between the App Store and Google Play Store is the speed of the approval process. The approval process for Google Play is much faster, which leads to several lower quality apps. However, the App Store is based on quality assurance leading to a stricter approval process. The heavy review process contributes to the high quality of the apps, but also a longer upload time.
Final Thoughts
It is important to note that developers interested in utilizing both platforms can use software such a React Native, which is a framework capable of creating an app for both Google Play and App Store. Furthermore, although a platform may be more developer friendly, it does not assure better quality. There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to each platform, and which you will use must be determined by the purpose of your app and your business goals for the future.
