12 votes

For any given product, why is the iOS client often the best client?

Background:
I was deciding what to do since we use Atlassian’s Stride and it will be sunsetted. For us, the options are Teams or Slack. I’m going to give Teams a try since we already pay for it. Someone I know also happens to be a PM there. I texted him “wow, Teams iOS has a 4.7 rating in the App Store!” He said, yes, it’s probably our best client. It made me realize that this is very often the case. The iOS client is often the best client for many services.

Questions:
Do you all find this to be true as well?

If so, why do you think this is? iOS itself? iOS app guidelines? iOS devs are more product minded? Android device fragmentation?

Any and all thoughts appreciated.

note: I am mobile OS agnostic, I use them all (both) regularly.

14 comments

  1. [4]
    Deimos
    Link
    My understanding (which could be completely wrong) is that it's far easier to develop for iOS because there's so little variance in the devices available. There's a very small set of possible...

    My understanding (which could be completely wrong) is that it's far easier to develop for iOS because there's so little variance in the devices available. There's a very small set of possible devices that your users could have, and you can develop/test for those specific capabilities (screen size, speed, etc.).

    But for Android, there are hundreds or thousands of different devices, with different screen sizes, major variances in CPU/RAM/etc., and it's a lot harder to try to develop something that will work decently for all (or at least a good portion) of them.

    22 votes
    1. meghan
      Link Parent
      That's why developing for the Web is so much harder, yet so much more rewarding. It's the Android problem on maximum overdrive

      That's why developing for the Web is so much harder, yet so much more rewarding. It's the Android problem on maximum overdrive

      3 votes
    2. [2]
      Neverland
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I just realized the gravity of what my Teams contact said, he was including the desktop clients as well. He was saying that their best client on mobile and desktop was iOS. Do you think that...

      I just realized the gravity of what my Teams contact said, he was including the desktop clients as well. He was saying that their best client on mobile and desktop was iOS. Do you think that mobile has a simplicity factor / lowest common denominator factor that led to this? Or is the fact that Teams desktop is Electron makes it not take advantage of native OS guidelines or features?

      Another question, for truly desktop OS agnostics, are apps that are on MacOS and Windows usually better on one or the other?

      Edit: Maybe I should have tagged this post “philosophy” :)

      1 vote
      1. dstaley
        Link Parent
        I think it mostly comes down to how new iOS is. The entire UI layer is basically at most 11 years old, compared to Windows which still has shit from Windows 95. Android would be right up there...

        I think it mostly comes down to how new iOS is. The entire UI layer is basically at most 11 years old, compared to Windows which still has shit from Windows 95. Android would be right up there with iOS if it wasn't for the wide array of different devices it runs on. iOS also has the benefit of an incredible amount of optimization for the hardware. The iPad has a 120 Hz native refresh rate for goodness' sake!

        3 votes
  2. [2]
    demifiend
    Link
    I suspect that the developers put in more effort on the iOS client, and figure that Android users will settle for lower quality.

    I suspect that the developers put in more effort on the iOS client, and figure that Android users will settle for lower quality.

    13 votes
    1. [2]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. demifiend
        Link Parent
        I suspect that Android is a second-class citizen because the flavor and version fragmentation combined with the huge variety of devices make it such a pain in the ass to develop for and support.

        That said, I don't doubt that app devs having to account for multiple different flavors and versions of Android, plus countless hardware specs, factors in as well.

        I suspect that Android is a second-class citizen because the flavor and version fragmentation combined with the huge variety of devices make it such a pain in the ass to develop for and support.

        6 votes
  3. phedre
    Link
    Integrated software and hardware, and a higher rate of upkeep on the latest OS releases. You know when you dev for iOS that you’re only dealing with apple hardware, and apple has full control over...

    Integrated software and hardware, and a higher rate of upkeep on the latest OS releases. You know when you dev for iOS that you’re only dealing with apple hardware, and apple has full control over the entire platform.

    5 votes
  4. super_james
    Link
    Not sure if it's still relevant but people who use iOS certainly used to be much more likely to pay for apps so could just be that there's more competition to make the best iOS apps?

    Not sure if it's still relevant but people who use iOS certainly used to be much more likely to pay for apps so could just be that there's more competition to make the best iOS apps?

    3 votes
  5. [2]
    musa_totter
    Link
    I can't remember where I read it, but IAPs (In-App Purchases) are made at a much lower rate per device on Android. For a company who makes their living on IAPs, their time is better spent on an...

    I can't remember where I read it, but IAPs (In-App Purchases) are made at a much lower rate per device on Android. For a company who makes their living on IAPs, their time is better spent on an iOS app.

    3 votes
    1. Neverland
      Link Parent
      So that would fall into a category that I did not pose in my post, iOS development likely has a larger budget, even though iOS has a smaller global device market share. This could have raised the...

      So that would fall into a category that I did not pose in my post, iOS development likely has a larger budget, even though iOS has a smaller global device market share.

      This could have raised the bar for iOS apps across the board.

      2 votes
  6. onyxleopard
    Link
    I can’t back it up with anything other than my intuition, but one aspect of Apple’s platforms that I haven’t seen mentioned is that Apple has spent a large amount of time and effort from an...

    I can’t back it up with anything other than my intuition, but one aspect of Apple’s platforms that I haven’t seen mentioned is that Apple has spent a large amount of time and effort from an incredibly talented developer pool to create their iOS (and macOS) APIs. This makes it easier for developers to make high quality applications on those platforms relative to other platforms. And, assuming developers do use Apple’s provided APIs, it makes the overall experience for the end user more consistent.

    3 votes
  7. rkcr
    Link
    Context: I've been an Android developer for almost a decade. I'll try to be relatively fair, but obviously I'm biased. :P I find the premise of your question a bit flawed: These days, I don't...

    Context: I've been an Android developer for almost a decade. I'll try to be relatively fair, but obviously I'm biased. :P

    I find the premise of your question a bit flawed: These days, I don't believe it to be the case that the iOS version of mainstream apps is often better than the Android version. Nowadays any large company (MS, Atlassian, FB, etc.) tries to have an equally competent Android and iOS app. Your specific example, Teams, has an Android app with 4.4 stars, which is actually pretty good!

    It's also a very US-centric view of the mobile market. iOS has a strong presence in the US, but not as much so in other parts of the world. For example, in India, 90% of mobile devices are Android. Obviously, then, you'd put more resources into developing your Android app.

    I agree that years ago, it was the case that Android apps were often crap compared to iOS. I think there are three main reasons for it. First is harder development (fragmentation). The second is that iOS has always had more spendy users, so skilled developers tended to flock towards iOS dev first. And last, one often overlooked reason: higher-ups at companies usually only own iOS devices, resulting in no one in charge caring about Android.

    I think those three issues have largely gone away. Fragmentation on iOS is worse (it's no longer a single device), whereas Android has been focusing on the problem for a decade and there are many good solutions for it now. Second, there's been a rise of SaaS apps over paid apps. Teams, Stride, Slack... you don't pay for any of them, but they are assumed to be required as part of using the service. As for managers - well, that's still a rough point, but I think there's enough Android users now that you can't simply ignore them forever.

    What's still a legitimate phenomena are companies that pick a single mobile platform to start out on (due to resource constraints), and that is typically whatever platform is dominating the market they're aiming for initially. In the US, that often happens to be iOS, since iOS users tend to spend more money. But obviously in India, you'd start with Android. So again, it depends on your market.

    3 votes
  8. what
    Link
    Like others have said, Android’s reputation as a “techie” OS, as well as the fact that Android has much more diverse hardware. I think this will change more and more though. Technologies like...

    Like others have said, Android’s reputation as a “techie” OS, as well as the fact that Android has much more diverse hardware.

    I think this will change more and more though. Technologies like Flutter, React Native and Nativescript that let you create apps for both OS’s from a single codebase are becoming better and more popular very quickly.

    2 votes
  9. crius
    Link
    As far as my experience goes (as developer, not specifically for mobile) the main problem is fragmentation. Also, until relatively recently, the android SDK was a mess apparently.

    As far as my experience goes (as developer, not specifically for mobile) the main problem is fragmentation.

    Also, until relatively recently, the android SDK was a mess apparently.

    1 vote