MOBILE GAMEDEVELOPERSPREFER IOSBY ANTHONY BEYER

MOBILE PHONE HISTORYThe history of the mobile phonecan be traced back to the 1970s,when the first mobile phonecall was placed by MartinCooper, an engineer atMotorola.

The phone ( a prototype) wasmuch larger than currentdevices, was used just for calls,and was equipped with about30 mins of talk time.

MOBILE PHONE HISTORY

Still, it wasn't until a decadelater that mobile phonesbecame available to the public.

And the smartphone, IBM'sSimon device, would beanother 10 years in the works,making its debut in 1992. Thephone was touchscreen andentailed more features thancalling alone.

GAMING ON PHONES

Mobile phone gaminglaunched shortly after in 94,with the arcade favorite, Tetris,being the first to make anappearance.

In 1997, Nokia introduced agame of their own, Snake,which gained popularity, andthe rest is history.

IPHONEThe iPhone launched in 2007and changed the smartphoneworld entirely.

It expanded the idea ofapplications, making themcentral to the device, andremoved keyboard hardware,providing more space onscreenfor all activities, includinggaming.

It became widely successfuland the model after which allother competitors would create.

COMPETITIONAlmost a year later, Googlelaunched its own device, the G1 onT-Mobile, running a nativesoftware similar to and incompetition with Apple's populariPhone.

The G1 didn't prove as successful,but the company extended itsadvanced software with otherdevices and soon struck gold withits Samsung partnership.

POPULARITY

Presently, 470 million iPhoneshave been sold its launch and itspopularity continues to rise withevery new release.

Comparatively, Samsung's mostpopular device, the Galaxy, hassold about 200 million phonessince its launch in 2010 andoutsells the iPhone at times.

OPERATING SYSTEMNevertheless, when it comes tomobile games, it's less aboutthe hardware and more abouthow the system operates.iPhone runs its own softwareentitled iOS, while Google'sAndroid system is run not onlyon Samsung but on anincredible 1 Billion devices intotal, making it significantlymore popular than the iOS interms of market share.

PREFERENCE FOR IOSThat said, most gamedevelopers prefer launching oniOS, despite Android large userbase for the following reasons:

It's easier to conduct betatesting on the few iPhoneswhich run iOS vs. thehundreds that run AndroidApp development for iOS isabout 30% cheaper thanAndroidiOS users spend 4x as muchon apps and buy more often

WHAT ABOUT ANDROID?According to this article,Android is not left out of theequation entirely.

Game developers still want toget their creations into thehands of Android users, butlaunching on iOS first can helpgauge success and determineproblems.

Subsequently, Android usersoften experience a better,tested version of a game forfree, though it may be premiumon iOS.

FINAL THOUGHTSAndroid is more ubiquitouswith a greater reach than iOS.

However, revenue from mobilegaming is significantly higheron iOS and the cost of creatingthe game is less, thusly, morebang for the buck.

Nevertheless, mobile gamespending is growing onAndroid, and if that trendcontinues and the softwarebecomes more developerfriendly, preferences maychange.

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REFERENCE LISThttp://www.imore.com/history-iphone-originalhttp://thenextweb.com/mobile/2011/12/06/the-history-of-the-smartphone/#grefhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)http://www.knowyourmobile.com/nokia/nokia-3310/19848/history-mobile-phones-1973-2008-handsets-made-it-all-happenhttp://www.polygon.com/2015/11/5/9675740/apple-gaming-android-google-late-gameshttp://fortune.com/2014/06/27/apples-users-spend-4x-as-much-as-googles/

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