Why is Android still the second platform developers work on?

Ron Offringa, writing for droid-life.com:

Every year we see the same promise: this is the year that Android-first development will become a reality. At the same time we see big companies like Instagram repeatedly introduce new apps that are iOS-only. Android has been able to tout more market share than iOS for quite some time, but that doesn’t seem to have translated into app developers releasing Android apps at the same time as their iOS counterparts, much less Android-first.

Lots of interesting elements in this piece. First, note that this comes from an Android blog, not an Apple blog.

One issue is willingness of users to pay for their apps. From one small developer:

“Everything we’ve read, every number we’ve seen shows that it’s really difficult to get people to pay for apps on Android. We didn’t think we could release a paid app on Android and create something sustainable enough to fund further development.”

And then there’s the issue of fragmentation:

“We were finding Android in general to be a slower platform to move on. There’s more time spent dealing with fragmentation bugs. There’s more time spent dealing with testing and debugging, and we would rather spend that time building new functionality.”

There’s a lot more to this. There are obviously counterexamples, developers who find Android an easier platform for their app. And we all know that the iOS app store is not paved with gold. There are quotes from John Gruber about Branch Q’s Vesper price hike and from Marco Arment about the free app model with in-app purchase to unlock premium features.

Terrific read.