Even though Android Studio is Google’s recommended option, it might not always be the best choice.įor example, if you want to write cross-platform apps that can run on iOS or another operating system as well as Android, it might be better to choose one of the cross-platform frameworks. And, although Android has been less lucrative than iOS in the past, App Annie says that Google Play and third-party Android stores will generate $41 billion in 2017, compared to $40 billion for iOS.įor many developers, choosing to write Android apps is an easy decision, but choosing which integrated development environment (IDE) to use to write those apps is much more difficult. Recent data from NetMarketShare gives Android a 64.38 percent share of the market, compared to 33.09 percent for iOS. That means they don’t have to acquire an entirely new skillset when writing Android apps.Īlso, Android is the most popular mobile platform in the world. Because Java is the world’s most popular programming language, a lot of developers already know it. First, Java is the native programming language for Android. Many of those developers find the Android platform particularly attractive for several reasons. To put that in context, there are about 21 million developers in the world, so more than half of them are targeting mobile platforms. In 2016, Evans Data reported that the worldwide mobile development population has exceeded 12 million.

Those high revenue numbers explain why so many developers have begun creating apps. According to App Annie’s market forecast, consumers will likely spend $81 billion in mobile app stores this year, and that number could reach $139 billion by 2021. Mobile development represents a huge opportunity for developers, whether they work for large enterprises, small businesses, or are just hobbyists.

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