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Just before Christmas we brought you the news that The Brand Surgery had successfully submitted a mobile application to the Android Market and that an iPhone App was soon to follow for the well received ‘The Review Doctor’ website. Well, that day has come and we are pleased to announce that The Review Doctor is now available in the Apple App Store. You can download it by following the link below:

The Review Doctor in the Android MarketAvailable in the App Store

Anyway, after undergoing the process for submitting to both online app repository’s, we thought we’d compare the two processes and have our say on their pro’s and con’s. We have broken the process into several categories.

Development Environment

Ok, so we love both Mac’s and PC’s at The Brand Surgery, the Mac is brilliant for design work, especially when using Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator and the PC is great as a general purpose machine and has many advantages for web development. (Not that Mac’s can’t be used for web development). But put simply, we like the option of choosing what we work on and the Android Market allows us this freedom. We can download the development tools for any platform! Apple however, restrict you to only developing on a Mac, which is somewhat frustrating for those that don’t have a Mac – this could greatly increase the cost of development!

Apple 0 – 1 Android

Cost

If you’re going to enter the world of mobile development, there is going to be a cost involved (at least if you want to use the market leaders) so this is purely a case of who is cheaper! Now, neither development programme is expensive (at least it seems), but Android Market charges $25 (around £16) as a one-off fee. Apple however have a slightly more expensive fee of $99 (around £64) per year. So Android wins again!

Apple 0 – 2 Android


The Review Doctor on the App Store

The Review Doctor on the App Store

Sign-up Process

Androids process was quick, simple and intuitive. In fact, if you already have a Google account, you simply associate it to your development account. Easy, brilliant, thank you very much Google!

Apple however, require you to (if you sign-up as a business) provide proof of your companies existence by sending off various documents, etc. and we found them extremely awkward and arduous to deal with! After sending off our certificate from Companies House (as requested) they then changed their rules and wanted something else, and we ended up going backwards and forwards for several days!

Apple 0 – 3 Android

Support

Now it must be said, that we haven’t required much support from either Apple or Android, but Apple does appear to be far more equipped with a plethora of documentations, examples, videos and various other resources within it’s ‘Member Centre’ (presumably what the large cost is for) and although Android does have documentation, Apples is just far superior.

Apple 1 – 3 Android


The Review Doctor on Android Market

The Review Doctor on Android Market

Submission Process

This was for us, one of the biggest differences between the two platforms, and to be perfectly honest, a perfect medium would be somewhere between the two!

Android accept pretty much anything onto the Market, once you  have created your app, you fill in the details to be displayed in the Android Market, upload the app and click submit. Then as soon as it has uploaded, and you verify this, the app is live in the Market. Brilliant! Or is it? Not exactly. It’s great for people like The Brand Surgery who are designing and developing quality applications because we get into the Market quickly, but consider for a minute those that are producing apps which are broken, pointless and poorly produced. These apps also get instantly approved and enter the market, filling it with a lot of poor apps to search through. Not ideal!

Let’s look at Apples approach then. You submit your app in much the same way as Android, except your app gets sent off for ‘review’ by one of Apples staff. This obviously allows for the rubbish apps to be rejected (although with some apps on the App Store, you may wonder who was reviewing them) but it also adds considerable time to the submission process, especially if your app is rejected. This would then result in a longer appeal process unless you make the necessary changes.

Neither gets the win in this round so it remains:

Apple 1 – 3 Android

Market Share

Simple, Apple hold the market share, so they get the win! We are able to reach far more people on the App Store than we can in Android Market. Ask us in a year’s time after the Google branded Android builds momentum, it might be a different story!

Apple 2 – 3 Android

So after all is said and done, this suggests that Android is the better platform to build for. Wrong! They are both of equal marketing value as each other. Each holds a significant weight in the market, and it gives off a better overall brand if you have both of those names attached to your website, application, concept or company. We highly recommend you add some weight to your brand by creating a mobile application and we’d be more than happy to help you out! Not only would you receive our fantastic design and top quality development, you will have all of our CIM Chartered Marketing experience and branding skills on tap as well!

Call us on 01903 824229 or contact us on online to arrange a FREE, no obligation quote or meeting.