Android vs. iOS vs. React Native: A Comprehensive Guide for Startup Entrepreneurs

With the proliferation of mobile devices, the world of mobile apps has been registering steep growth during the past years. Ola, Uber, Instagram, WhatsApp, and many of their counterparts are generating millions of dollars for their owners.

The mantra of success today is not confined within the four walls of traditional giants. An entrepreneur with a unique app idea and apt strategy could easily disrupt the market and climb the ladder of success in no time. If you are a startup entrepreneur and planning to venture into the mobile app development, this guide is worth reading.

Entrepreneurs mostly make mistakes in selecting the right app development platform- end up with a costly, frustrating experience- burying a promising idea in the incubation stage. In this guide, we have tried to give an in-depth idea on the latest app development platforms so that you can make an informed choice.

Android App Development Platform

According to the recent Statista 2018 report, Android is the king of the mobile OS market, with a staggering 88% market share, followed by iOS with only 11.9%. Android is highly popular in Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Panama, South Korea, India, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, and Italy. Some of the key reasons behind the popularity of Android app development platform are as follows:

• Customizable UI – Customers like mobile apps that deliver enhanced user experience. In order to achieve this objective, Google always focuses on making its UI customizable. This enables businesses and developers to offer better customer experience and make the apps more engaging.
• Secured – Android is a highly secure app development platform, which helps business owners come up with the best-in-class mobile apps that do not crash in real time. Since the platform is similar to Linux based Kernel, security is guaranteed.
• Easier Integration – The success of a business app relies on how easily it can integrate with other apps. Android stands first in this regard by supporting highly effective inter-app integration.
• Freedom to Innovate – Android is at the forefront of encouraging innovation. Creative developers and entrepreneurs can let loose their imagination and creativity, develop engaging apps that could disrupt the market by giving a new dimension of doing business.
• Easy Customization – In the era of evolving technology, businesses need to customize and adapt to new trends and fulfill customer requirements. Android app development platform offers easy customization opportunity so that entrepreneurs can easily tweak the existing apps with improved features.
• Hardware compatibility – For an entrepreneur, the primary objective is to reach the maximum number of prospects. Android with its wider user base makes the job easier. In addition, apps developed on Android run on a wide array of devices from diverse manufacturers with varied hardware configurations.

iOS App Development Platform

Android might be the king in terms of user base, but the iOS development platform leads the revenue generation index. Moreover, revenue is the ultimate fuel that runs the business. According to Device Atlas report, iOS is most popular in Denmark, Australia, US, Canada, and the UK. This means, entrepreneurs who want to penetrate developed countries market, iOS is the magic wand. Some of the core benefits of iOS are as follows:

• Quality Assured- Apple follows strict quality standards that push developers to develop high-quality iPhone and iPad apps. By getting the business app placed on the Apple iTunes App Store certainly improves brand identity.
• Enhanced Customer Experience – When it comes to delivering better customer experience, enterprises choose iOS due to its superior brand value, perfect software system, faultless hardware, strong security, and consistent customer support. iOS apps work flawlessly and deliver excellent user experience which is highly important for an entrepreneur.
• High-end Security Features – Apple offers unmatched security mechanism to ensure data protection. In order to safeguard enterprise data from intrusion & hacking, iOS comes with integrated data handling systems as well as data security and data encryption measures.
• Catering to a Tech-Savvy Audience – In order to boost sales, every entrepreneur needs to attract new customers and an app developed on iOS platform could certainly give you an edge in this aspect. You can easily reach to a Tech Savvy audience via iPhone or iPad app and enhance brand recognition.
• High Return on Investment (ROI) – Unlike Android apps that generate less than 10% of total investment, iOS apps generates much higher revenue and increased ROI. iOS apps are highly scalable and are quite capable to cater to the investment worthy clients and render better business value with higher ROI.

React Native App Development Platform

Entrepreneurs who want to cater to both Android and iOS users, for them cross-platform development platform like React Native is perhaps the best choice. Mobile apps developed on React Native could be deployed across all platforms and give a leeway to target as many users as possible. Below is a list of advantages of React Native app development platform:

• Greater Market Reach – By embracing React Native, entrepreneurs can reach a larger audience. Apps developed on this cross-development platform can be hosted on multiple platforms. This enables you to reach a larger user base encompassing Windows, iOS, Android, and other operating systems.
• Reusable Code Saves Time and Effort– Android and iOS require developing code separately for every platform. This means an entrepreneur needs to invest on both platforms. React Native cross-platform development enables enterprises to develop one program and deploy it for both Android and iOS.
• Reduced Development Overhead – App development cost is huge and entrepreneurs need to splurge even more if it requires developing apps for different platforms. React Native helps businesses reduce development overhead as they can get their apps on diverse app stores without investing in individual platforms.
• Faster Time to Market – By leveraging React Native, entrepreneurs can significantly reduce app development time and strategize a faster time to market. Apps developed on React Native are not only functional across different platforms, but they are also more scalable and efficient.

Hope this guide will help you select the right app development platform. If you need more on this, you can always get in touch with an app development company.