iPhone vs Android sales: 2 weeks in

bignoggins · August 2011

Hey guys,

As promised, here is my iphone vs android sales comparison. I've recently ported one of my apps to android and have been pleased with the results. To keep things fair I'm only comparing one version of my paid iphone app to its android equivalent (Fantasy Football Monster '11). This does not include any ad revenue, in app purchases or iPad sales.

Date Android iPhone

Aug 25, 2011 $177.67 $420
Aug 24, 2011 $261.30 $382
Aug 23, 2011 $386.68 $386
Aug 22, 2011 $447.26 $425
Aug 21, 2011 $422.18 $585
Aug 20, 2011 $280.06 $403
Aug 19, 2011 $211.09 $352
Aug 18, 2011 $194.37 $388
Aug 17, 2011 $357.39 $342
Aug 16, 2011 $463.99 $330
Aug 15, 2011 $384.55 $407
Aug 14, 2011 $376.20 $483
Aug 13, 2011 $263.34 $502
Aug 12, 2011 $209.00 $508

Total $4428.08 $5914
Per Day $316.29 $422.43

So, overall the android version of my app makes about 75% of its iPhone equivalent. This is significantly better than I expected.

One more data point. The android app is currently about 250ish overall top paid, and the iPhone version is 350ish. Take from that what you will.

Some quick observations about android from an iOS developer's perspective:

1) I think developing *quality* apps is easier on iOS. I'm actually a Java/.NET developer by profession so I found this surprising. But once you get passed the initial learning curve, I think that Cocoa Touch APIs get you 90% of the way there, whereas Android APIs get you about 30% of the way there. That is to say, if you want a lot of the nice UI touches you're used to on the iphone, you'll have to spend much more effort getting there on Android. The main advantage I feel Android has is memory management, but the reference counting method that Objective-C uses is second nature once you are familiar with the fundamentals.

2) Android gives you REAL TIME sales analysis. This is pretty incredible. Yes you can somewhat simulate this on iPhone using 3rd party analytics, but being able to see the moment someone bought your app just brings my obsession with checking sales and stats to another level. You also get your daily reports much sooner (about 12:30AM PST as opposed to 5-6AM PST).

3) Android market screws up orders quite a bit. In fact, almost 20% of all orders are declined or cancelled due to some android market error. After checking forums, it seems like this is not unusual. Now, I don't know if this means I have 20% lost sales, but still disturbing nonetheless. In android's defense, apple actually never gives you this level of detail. To my knowledge, you don't know if users can't buy your app due to an app store error. But judging from the fact that we get e-mails about this issue every other day on android and I've never gotten a single e-mail about this in the past 15 months I've been on the app store is very telling. Google has GOT to fix this. Developers lose, customers lose, and google loses.

In conclusion, I feel like the Android Market has really come into its own. The common wisdom that android owners do not pay for apps is demonstrably false. They may not pay as much per user for apps as iPhone owners, but the enormous marketshare Android commands is just too much to ignore.

I'll try to address any questions directly in this thread. Thanks for reading.

NOTE: This is double posted on hacker news http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2929612
If you are an HN member feel free to upvote on HN as well since some HN members have asked me for the same info.

Ed Welch · August 2011

Thanks for the info! That's quite interesting.
One piece of information is missing though. What percent of android phones on market do you support, and how many different models do you test on?
I heard that, because of fragmentation, it's nearly impossible to support all devices.

bignoggins · August 2011

Ed Welch;369078 said:
Thanks for the info! That's quite interesting.
One piece of information is missing though. What percent of android phones on market do you support, and how many different models do you test on?
I heard that, because of fragmentation, it's nearly impossible to support all devices.

We don't target specific devices, but we target SDK 2.1+. We test on an original Droid running 2.2 and a Droid Incredible using 2.2. Fragmentation is annoying but not a huge issue for us so far. We haven't encountered a single issue due to different hardware as of yet.

ziocleto · August 2011

Promo Dispenser;369147 said:
Very interesting.

Now it would be nice if we could get more comparison from other devs to see if you are just a lucky guy with an outstanding app, or if it is something usual.

My pattern goes pretty much exactly like that, android sales are roughly 70% of iPhone sales now, just last week it was still 10:1 in favour of the iPhone, now with the iPhone dropping like mad the Android market got much more respect from us.

Interesting stuff!

Bertrand21 · August 2011

Promo Dispenser;369147 said:
Very interesting.

Now it would be nice if we could get more comparison from other devs to see if you are just a lucky guy with an outstanding app, or if it is something usual.

I wouldn't describe his app as "lucky". We know his app is very niche so we cannot compare it to another Dev story on Android.

Congratulations to you Jerry!

Meoz · August 2011

I won't describe his app as 'lucky' either but having already a huge fan base on iOS have helped him considerably to sell well on android. All those guys who download the app on their iphone are now telling their friends with an android device to download the app as well.

Bertrand21 · August 2011

Promo Dispenser;369162 said:
What do you mean with dropping like mad?
Did I miss something?

It is not dropping. Wtf.

dana0550 · August 2011

BN,

Could you please tell us iPhone developers your how experience with developing for android was? I know you hired a developer but I wanted to know a few things like:

With the iPhones pixel perfect user interfaces, how was it for example getting your android app looking exactly the same? More specifically, say if I am using a tab bar in the iPhone version, would you just use the tab bar equivalent in android or create a tab bar from scratch?

Obviously the code needs to be rewritten since there is no direct porting but what amount of time should I expect it to take to re write the app? I know this depends on the coder but just wanted your opinion.

You mention that fragmentation is more an annoyance than a real problem because you targeted the app for 2.2. Does this mean despite the rumors if I were to target just one SDK version then I would only have to create one interface? Then the device would do its best to resize i'm guessing...?

Thanks for your response, if anyone else would like to chime in, feel free.

stanny · August 2011

Would I be able to port my 480x320 resolutions iOS graphics to Android?

bignoggins · August 2011

stanny;369173 said:
Would I be able to port my 480x320 resolutions iOS graphics to Android?

Yes I used the same graphics. Android SDK has image layout tools for stretching images correctly at the edges. This came in pretty useful.

bignoggins · August 2011

Good questions.

For UI, you can't get it to look exactly the same (without rewriting significant portions of the iOS SDK in Java). I would recommend, for your own sanity, to to just use the Android components. For example, there is a tab bar, but it goes on top. There is also a tableview, it's called a listview.

You can't get it pixel perfect because different devices have different resolutions. What you can do is tell android to stretch images only at the edges so you don't get funky results.

Someone else actually ported the code for me, so I can't tell you from experience how long it would take you. I think it really depends on the app. Backend logic can be easily ported, but if you have a lot of custom UIs like I do, it could take a while. You basically have to learn an entirely new UI API and try your best to accomplish the same results. From a purely programming POV, I would say the android app will probably take longer if you want the same level of polish. Of course you already have the graphics and business logic from the iphone version so you don't have to redo those.

Hope that helps.

dana0550;369168 said:
BN,

Could you please tell us iPhone developers your how experience with developing for android was? I know you hired a developer but I wanted to know a few things like:

With the iPhones pixel perfect user interfaces, how was it for example getting your android app looking exactly the same? More specifically, say if I am using a tab bar in the iPhone version, would you just use the tab bar equivalent in android or create a tab bar from scratch?

Obviously the code needs to be rewritten since there is no direct porting but what amount of time should I expect it to take to re write the app? I know this depends on the coder but just wanted your opinion.

You mention that fragmentation is more an annoyance than a real problem because you targeted the app for 2.2. Does this mean despite the rumors if I were to target just one SDK version then I would only have to create one interface? Then the device would do its best to resize i'm guessing...?

Thanks for your response, if anyone else would like to chime in, feel free.

bignoggins · August 2011

Thanks Ryan!

Bertrand21;369154 said:
I wouldn't describe his app as "lucky". We know his app is very niche so we cannot compare it to another Dev story on Android.

Congratulations to you Jerry!

mochibits · August 2011

Great info, thanks for sharing.

foany · August 2011

Thanks for the data guys. Im sure that others experience varies, I wonder why that is? Are the stories we've heard before about very low sales out of date now? Does android success require iPhone success first?

stanny · August 2011

bignoggins;369202 said:
Yes I used the same graphics. Android SDK has image layout tools for stretching images correctly at the edges. This came in pretty useful.

It doesn't look bad? Most Android devices these days have "Retina" type resolutions don't they?

TunaNugget · August 2011

My ported free app has been on the Android market for a couple of weeks, but so far it has a tenth of the downloads that my iPhone app had in the same period, and a CTR that's a small fraction of the iPhone app's CTR. The apps are identical.

All in all, it's looking like a waste of time. Thankfully, it was my time, and it didn't take very long.

dana0550 · August 2011

bignoggins;369203 said:
Good questions.

For UI, you can't get it to look exactly the same (without rewriting significant portions of the iOS SDK in Java). I would recommend, for your own sanity, to to just use the Android components. For example, there is a tab bar, but it goes on top. There is also a tableview, it's called a listview.

You can't get it pixel perfect because different devices have different resolutions. What you can do is tell android to stretch images only at the edges so you don't get funky results.

Someone else actually ported the code for me, so I can't tell you from experience how long it would take you. I think it really depends on the app. Backend logic can be easily ported, but if you have a lot of custom UIs like I do, it could take a while. You basically have to learn an entirely new UI API and try your best to accomplish the same results. From a purely programming POV, I would say the android app will probably take longer if you want the same level of polish. Of course you already have the graphics and business logic from the iphone version so you don't have to redo those.

Hope that helps.

Great Info. Thanks for the response, now I know what to expect.

ziocleto · August 2011

Bertrand21;369164 said:
It is not dropping. Wtf.

I was referring to my iPhone sales vs Android sales.

Few days later, now, everything back to normal, iPhone sales "normal", and android back to very low.

I really think the android market needs a new business model in order to succeed for paid apps.

SmOg · August 2011

The problem is with Android market, that there are only a few countries which supports "paid apps". I mean some countries developers have no choice to select paid app. Only free.. :S

ziocleto · August 2011

SmOg;369879 said:
The problem is with Android market, that there are only a few countries which supports "paid apps". I mean some countries developers have no choice to select paid app. Only free.. :S

That's a minor problem, you are not going to rely on the 2 sales a year from Somalia, the "big $" countries are in.

tanukush · August 2011

ziocleto;369880 said:
That's a minor problem, you are not going to rely on the 2 sales a year from Somalia, the "big $" countries are in.

i think he wanted to say that as a developer he can not submit paid app in android market.Developer's from a few countries only can submit paid apps for distribution, free app submission is allowed. Or they need to register a company in a country which are allowed in the list.

SmOg · August 2011

tanukush;369886 said:
i think he wanted to say that as a developer he can not submit paid app in android market.Developer's from a few countries only can submit paid apps for distribution, free app submission is allowed. Or they need to register a company in a country which are allowed in the list.

Yep, thats what i tried to say. :P

Stevehd · August 2011

Congratulations on the continued success. Those are some interesting numbers.

You managed to sell 70% the amount of the iOS version, but what was your expectation before launch? 10%? 50%?

bignoggins · August 2011

Stevehd;369961 said:
Congratulations on the continued success. Those are some interesting numbers.

You managed to sell 70% the amount of the iOS version, but what was your expectation before launch? 10%? 50%?

Other developers were saying 50:1 even 100:1 so those were my expectations.

Performance has been worse recently though. iPhone version is outselling android by about 4.5:1 now.

tanukush · August 2011

bignoggins;369965 said:
Other developers were saying 50:1 even 100:1 so those were my expectations.

Performance has been worse recently though. iPhone version is outselling android by about 4.5:1 now.

is it just because ur iphone version sale is increased or android sale is also going down?

bignoggins · August 2011

tanukush;369968 said:
is it just because ur iphone version sale is increased or android sale is also going down?

iphone has gone up and android has gone down.

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