Android Might Become Top Mobile OS, But What About Design Environment?
The writing’s on the wall: Android is probably going to dominate in the mobile OS space, from the consumer perspective, for quite some time. In fact, NielsenWire just published a report (link below) stating that Android has leaped into top place in the smartphone OS category, at least in the U.S., amongst recent smartphone purchasers — passing the iPhone. A number of other online publications have been saying for a few weeks that Android will dominate over all, and the report is echoed in the NY Times and in GigaOm. While I have nothing against Google — I do use many, many of their web tools daily — as a mobile developer, I have my own concerns about this. Namely, can the Android dev & design environment attract quality mobile apps development?
Let me clarify, if I can, so as not to offend. I’ve been thick in the development of iPhone/ iPad apps for the past few months (hence why I have not written on CallStyle lately), and only just started picking up Android skills. I love the Mac’s Xcode environment and the Interface Builder, both of which make it relatively easy to to at least mockup iPhone and iPad screens
I don’t feel that that’s the case with Android. While I have no Android phone to verify the quality of Android apps, I have been working with the Eclipse IDE and necessary Android plugins to do some very simple “hello, world” type of mobile apps in the simulator. Now, I am an experienced programmer of more than 25 years (though I’m not saying how much “more”), and I can assess an dev environment fairly quickly. I’ve always liked the Eclipse IDE, though most of the languages I used to program in didn’t have plugins at the time, so I’ve never used Eclipse all that much. However, it’s the Android screen design that I’m not impressed with. Mocking up screens in Android is nowhere nearly as enjoyable as for Apple iOS. What’s more, Android phones have far too many screen sizes overall. It’s like designing sites for the Web all over again.
Call me biased but when offshore companies (i.e., outside Canada and the U.S.) are bidding as low as possible on mobile app projects and even prototyping for free, it’s hard enough to survive and create iPhone apps that will function on just 3-4 types of devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPhone 4, iPad). Sure, Apple might soon release a 7″ iPad, or other devices that’ll have iOS and need apps, but for now, it’s relatively easy to design for iOS, and the Mac’s Interface Builder makes it easy too. I’m not seeing the equivalent for Android. It just doesn’t feel as enjoyable, and the simulator feels like an afterthought.
Apple’s App Store is still the biggest for now, but if I recall, there are experts who believe that won’t last. I don’t know. While I will be developing for Android and probably WebOS, my money (or at least my time) is still on iOS for now. What about you? As either a consumer of mobile apps or a developer, which platform are you betting on and why.
Links: Nielsen Wire, NY Times, GigaOm.