What Mobile System Would Win, If the Developer Were To Choose?

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1 Matthew Jannace December 16, 2010 Mobile Device Development Final Paper What Mobile System Would Win, If the Developer Were To Choose? Who determines what mobile device will succeed and which will fail, the designer, the manufacture, the advertiser, the consumer, the developer? It is hard to say one single entity in this complex interweaved relationship is responsible for determining whether one device wins or anther loses. However, let us imagine we lived in a world where the developers were the all mighty deciders of which devices were to fail based on their views of the devices development experience. In this developer-controlled world, which device would win? The developer has a very different view of the device from his counterparts. To be the best device, the developer wants to have a development experience that is easy, fast paced, and productive. To decide which operating system is the best the developer would evaluate a device based on items such as the install and configuration of the devices toolset, the ease of use and functionality of the integrated development environment, performance of the simulator, and the quality and quantity of the documentation available, ability to provide quality assurance for their products and other key points. As a young developer, I have had hands on experience working with the five of the top mobile operating systems, ios, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone 7, and WebOS. Based on my experiences and the criteria set forth I would choose the ios as the operating system of choice as a developer.

2 Though there are at least six major players in the mobile operating system competition, two are in high demand from developers. In a survey published by Appcelerator and IDC for the quarter four of 2010, where 2,363 out of a 70,000+ developer community were surveyed, concluded that approximately 87% of the developers surveyed were interested in developing for the ios and about 72% were interested in developing for the Android OS 1. The report divided interest in the ios and Android OS by phone and tablet; however, averaging the two devices gives a picture of the overall interest in developing for the mobile Operating System. The ios and the Android operating system steal the spotlight with the next closest competitor being BlackBerry s operating system taking only 34% of the interest. The other major mobile operating systems all fall below the BlackBerry s interest level. The current developer interest levels show it is almost only a two horse race to the finish line; therefore, I will focus on showing how the ios development experience surpasses the Android development experience for the win. All the mobile operating systems require the developer to install their respective toolsets on the developer s computer. The installation process differs from product to product. Apples installation process is the easiest. The developer just has to register with Apple, download the SDK, and install the SDK on their Mac. Whereas, the Android OS install is a three-part process of downloading the SDK, downloading the Eclipse IDE, then downloading the Android plugin for the IDE, to a developer the less the steps to get up and working the better. What a developer receives with an SDK and IDE is usually some sort of editor, complier, debugger, and performance analyzer. However, SDK and IDE support for a mobile OS vary from OS to OS in quantity and quality. The ios comes with XCode, which includes a variety of tools to assist the developer in building, debugging, and performance analyzing. It has been reported that, Many developers love the iphone s SDK and the XCode IDE. The debugging 1 (Appcelerator & IDC) 2 of 11

3 tools are reported as fantastic, the instruments and source code integration make the tools easy to use. 2 I have used XCode for years and it keeps getting better and better. It is a lightweight IDE that has all the bells and whistles a developer could ask for and more. I would place XCode in the same quality category as Microsoft s Visual Studio (MVS), which is one of the best IDEs. What XCode might lack in comparison to MVS it makes up in the fact that it is free compared to the MVS starting price of $500 dollars. In support of XCode being a great IDE I have also read that many developers love for the instruments tool provided by Apple. The enthusiasm for Apples development products can clear be seen in this statement: One of the two things I really loved when it came to iphone development was a profiler called Instruments Not only did I easily get [an] interactive session running in [the] emulator with a graph that displayed memory usage, the damn tool gave me exact lines of code that were producing leaks! If you ever tried to hunt down memory [a] leak you ll know to appreciate [the] work done by Apple engineers. Bravo guys. 3 Its comments like this that validate the significance and reverence that the ios development tools possess. The latest version of XCode simplifies the process of creating applications for the ios operating system. The Android OS, WebOS, and BlackBerry OS all use Eclipse as there IDE of choice. These OS s provide separate SDK s and plugins for Eclipse to simplify the process of creating applications for their devices. However, the Eclipse plugins vary in functionality. The Androids plugin seem to work most of the time, I say most of the time because it can be buggy at times. These OS s choose Eclipse because it is a popular and open source IDE with many different plugins available. However, my experiences with Eclipse have been less than pleasing. I found 2 (Williamson) 3 (Tomasevic) 3 of 11

4 Eclipse to be a slow and a disappointing IDE especially when compared to XCode. Both IDE have about the same amount of power but XCode surpasses Eclipse in performance and ease of use. It seems that I am not the only one to share these views, Joe Hewitt, the creator of the iphone Facebook app, says: Android tools are horrendous, OS is hideous. 4 It would appear that Mr. Hewitt does not like the Android OS's choices of tools and IDE; therefore, it is applicable to assume that OSs' that follow the Android model of Eclipse plugins would not rank so highly to Mr. Hewitt as well. A developer wants to develop code quickly but they also want to develop a user interface (UI) that looks good and is easy to create. The XCode IDE comes with Interface Builder, which allows a developer to drag and drop interface objects onto a canvas to create an accurate view of what the UI will look like to an end user. Interface Builder is a great UI builder that simplifies the UI creation. It was said in an article by Tommy Chheng that the, iphone s built-in UI makes it really easy to make an app good looking and consistent. 5 Apple has taken the approach of developing there ios to have a consistent view so that users will automatically know what to expect when it comes to a new App s UI. This approach is different from the other mobile OS s. Android s view of the UI is completely opposite from Apples. The Android OS has little in the way of easy UI development. When it comes to Android, creating the UI is best done by editing the XML to create the desired UI; this makes the developers life harder, not easier. When Mr. Chheng compared the ios UI builder to the Androids lack thereof he had this comment, Android on the other hand makes it really easy to make a horrible looking app. 6 To a developer making something easy is usually good, except when it come to this, as a horrible looking app is not what most developers want. The similarities between the Android UI builder 4 (Williamson) 5 (Chheng) 6 (Chheng) 4 of 11

5 and the ios are non-existent and the differences are major. The drag and drop nature of the ios UI builder makes it easier for the developer to create great looking applications without having to break a sweat. Whereas, when it comes to the Android, It s easier to edit the XML directly but making it look nice is difficult. 7 Whatever helps the developer make a good-looking application is what a developer would want to work with. Next to the IDE, the most important software component to make a developers life easier is the simulator. The simulator allows the developer to test out an application before running the app on a device. The simulator is an essential part of debugging. XCode comes with a fully functional and well-made simulator. The ios simulator is fast to load, responsive and can perform all the operation that the mobile device can perform. I think Mr. Tomasevic opinion in his article is correct when it comes to the ios simulator, the emulator, which simply rocks. Only when I develop for iphone I prefer to use emulator instead of actual device as everything is better and faster. 8 The ios simulator is the next best thing when a developer does not have a device to work with. The Android SDK also comes with a Simulator but the quality is not equal to that of the ios. Mr. Tomasevics and I share a common opinion of the Android simulator, Emulator for Android is OK. Slow start aside it works, it s well integrated with IDE, debugger attaches most of the time you can t ask for more. 9 However, I disagree with Mr. Tomasevics comment that the, debugger attaches most of the time you can t ask for more 10 as a developer, I think a debugger should always attach not just most of the time. When working with the Android I did find that the debugger did not connect sometimes but I cannot say that about the ios simulator. The ios simulator worked perfectly every time. A developer s choice 7 (Chheng) 8 (Tomasevic) 9 (Tomasevic) 10 (Tomasevic) 5 of 11

6 development product should not work most of the time it should work all the time. To make matters worse for the Android simulator, it is simply slow. The writer of the blog post Android vs ios a Developer Perspective had this comment about the Android simulator, running stuff in the emulator is crazy slow, so you end up running all your code on a phone all the time. 11 This could make life hard for the developer that does not have capital to purchase a bunch of Android phones. Over all, the ios simulator far outshines the Android Simulator. An important tool that a developer needs to be successful writing applications is documentation. Documentation allows the developer to learn how to use the target mobile OS s API s to create applications that run on the device. Not only is documentation important for learning how to create an application it also is helpful when you are working on an application and you find yourself stuck with a non-functioning app. Both ios and the Android have a significant amount of resources for documentation. The ios has documentation built right into XCode so if the Developer needs information about how to send a message to a certain method XCode could help them. However, if the developer needs more information the Apple ios developer website has a vast array of different types of documentation. The Apple website has the simple method usage information. It also, has a lot of starter information to guide new developers though the process of performing certain operations. There are also podcast for developers to watch as knowledgeable ios engineers walk the developer through the usage and operation of certain tasks. Apple also provides a significant amount of sample source code for developers to read, walk though, and try out. Beyond the Apple provided content, the web is full of posts and blogs to provide and help any developer. A simple web search is all that stand between an ios developer and finding information and solutions to their problems. I agree with Mr. Chheng s comment, I tend to learn by examples and it was definitely an easier time to find 11 (James) 6 of 11

7 iphone help and code examples. 12 I find reading sample code to be more helpful than just the Library s API documentation. Thankfully, Apple and a larger developer network provide this essential resource. The Android OS also provides a significant amount of documentation resources. Android has the entire library API s on its developer website. In addition, there is a good amount of sample code and how-to s. However, I found that there were not only more web resources for the ios than Android but also the quality of the ios documentation was better. Mr. Chheng also brings up a good point about the Android documentation, For Android code samples, beware of which version the help/code examples are targeted for. 13 The changes in the Android API between version changes can cause tremendous pains. When targeting a specific version a developer must be careful not to confuse old sample code with newer API s. Another important issue that a developer must be concerned with is quality assurance. The developer needs to be sure that their product will perform consistently and correctly across all product lines and to some degree versions. To verify quality assurance requires the developer to have their product tested on all the possible devices that their product could be used on. Quality assurance is where the ios out performs the Android OS again by simplifying the problem. Because Apple controls the hardware and the OS, it regulates when updates come out and assures that updates are provided to all ios devices at the same time. This enables the developer to write code for a single ios version and it is assured to run on all ios devices that have that ios version. Apple has strived to allow the developer to write a single application and have it work on multiple devices. Apples desire is demonstrated in: 12 (Chheng) 13 (Chheng) 7 of 11

8 the new motion-control frameworks in ios 4 abstract away the differences in hardware between new and older OS devices, avoiding the fractionalization problems Android experiences as each new model introduces (or fails to include) specific hardware features. The result is that Apple s ios makes it easier for third parties to actually use new hardware. 14 In addition, because Apple has a limited range of devices the developer only needs to test this range of devices. In Christina Warrens article about the ios compared to the Android she states,...an ios developer can buy an ipad or an ipod touch or iphone off the shelf and do lots of hands-on device testing before releasing their app 15 If the ios developer wants to test their latest app on all the ios devices, all the developer needs is a iphone, a ipod Touch, and a ipad. That is all the hardware they will need to test the app. The same cannot be said for the Android. Android OS runs on multiple hardware types, which is a good thing, as it means the developer has a larger target audience. However, this also means that more devices have to be tested for quality assurance. Unlike the ios, the Android OS market is fragmented in that their Android OS runs on many different hardware configurations, of differing quality and version. This makes it extremely difficult to assure the quality of an application across so many products. Ms. Warren stats in her article, device testing is one of the areas that developers run into the most issues with Android. 16 The cost to assure the quality of an app across a wide range of devices and versions is expensive and daunting to a developer. Ms. Warren continues by stating the overarching problem that Androids produce with their cross platform dynamic. Android developers are often limited to whatever device they happen to have from a wireless carrier and the Android SDK emulator. That means that making sure that apps 14 (Ozks) 15 (Warren) 16 (Warren) 8 of 11

9 look and act a certain way on both the HTC EVO 4G and the Motorola Droid X is difficult unless the developer happens to own both devices. And that s before you even get into the quagmire of what version of Android to target. 17 When it comes to quality assurance, it is almost impossible to verify that an Android app will work for every Android user that downloads the app. Lastly, a developer will consider the programming language used when choosing the best mobile OS. Currently, ios applications are written in Objective- C and Android applications are written in Java. I have worked with the Objective- C and witnessed the horrors that many developers rave about when they first see Objective- C. That being said, the picture is not as grim as people make it out to be. I would agree that Objective- C, does require a higher learning curve for a new mobile application developer 18 but after using it for a short time it becomes quite easy. Some might offer to say that because Android applications are written in Java that it is a better OS choice. I would disagree; the advantage of the ios is that all applications inherit the same look, feel, and power thanks to the Objective- C Cocoa Touch Framework. In addition, because Objective- C is a superset of C means that standard C code can be used in an Objective- C program and with the addition of Objective- C++, C++ code can also be used with some restrictions. This flexibility allows for code that is written in C or C++ to be used in an Objective- C program opening up the potential for reuse of prebuilt C or C++ classes and code. More importantly, the benefits of a using the XCode IDE is worth the small pains of leaning Objective- C rather than, the constant pains of working with Androids inferior quality tools and quality assurance issues. 17 (Warren) 18 (Williamson) 9 of 11

10 All around the ios is a phenomenal product that just keeps improving. For a developer that wants a great product with dependable and advanced development tools the ios is the product of developer choice. The ios development experience starts by being easy install and setup. The free development tools are powerful and aid in the developers productivity. The IDE comes with one of the best simulator to test and debug your apps on. The documentation available to the ios developer is endless with information centrally located at the Apple developer site and across the web. Lastly, the simplifying of the quality assurance problem makes the ios shine. The only criticism I could justly entertain is the difficulties for a developer to learn Objective- C. However, I see that as a miniscule con trying to hold back a huge sea of pros. As a developer, I would have to say the ios experience makes the ios Platform the winning Mobile platform. 10 of 11

11 Works Cited Appcelerator & IDC. "Q4 Mobil Developer Report." Platform Interest Survey Chheng, Tommy. Android And iphone Development Thoughts. 3 May December 2010 < and- iphone- development- thoughts/>. James. Android vs ios: A Developer s Perspective. 7 December December 2010 < vs- ios- a- developers- perspective/>. Ozks, Billy. ios vs Android. 19 July December 2001 < vs- android- 2.xhtml>. Tomasevic, Predrag. Windows Mobile, iphone, Android - Marketplace Comparison. 29 January December 2010 < Warren, Christina. ios vs Android: Developers Weigh In [REPORT]. 23 June December 2010 < developer- survey- iphone- 4/>. Williamson, Maria. Another Look at Android vs. iphone Development. 27 September December 2010 < look- at- android- vs- iphone- development/>. 11 of 11

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