Sunday, January 29, 2012

Will Kindergarten Math be available on the iPhone soon?


A few people have asked me if Kindergarten Math is available for the iPhone. Not yet. Question is should I work on porting Kindergarten Math to iPhone now? I don't have a lot of resources - time or money. So, I have to chose whether I use those resources to build another android app for kids. Or, do I convert Kindergarten Math app to iPhone.

Android vs iPhone Development
Kindergarten math is a highly interactive application. It uses the full power of a 2 dimensional touch surface to create a realistic experience for the kids. To be quick to respond, it is written in native java for the android. I coded it using a 4 year old linux machine. It did not require me to buy new hardware. For testing the app, I borrowed my husband's 6 months old android phone. On days that I wanted to work on my app, he carried my old Nokia phone instead of his Android.

iPhone has a different native system. To create the same app for the iPhone, it must be rewritten using iPhone's native language - Objective C. Objective C is specific to Apple. It has it's own proprietary tooling, debuggers and ecosystem. I will need to invest time and money to learn it. Any iPhone apps need to be written using the Mac. And, they need to be tested on an iPhone. Just the hardware to get started writing an iPhone app is at least $2000. It is not a problem for someone who is already an iPhone fan. But, I have never owned an iAnything.

Android vs iPhone Market
Android is ~50% of the smart-phone market. iPhone is about half of the android market, give or take a few percent points. iPhone app sales, however, are higher than Android app sales. iPhone owners buy more apps than Android owners.

In tablets, iPad has 60% of the market share, and android has 40%. The trend, however,  is in android's favor. Question is, will android take over iPad this year... just as it did iPhone last year?

My choice
The real question is...
     Do I want to reach the largest audience - Android?
     Or, do I want to make the most money - iPhone?

I would rather reach a larger audience, and have more kids learn math and logic. So, I'll build the next Kids App on Android.

I wish I did not have to make the choice. I wish I could publish my app on both Android and iPhone. I wish Apple would run an Android VM on it's phones similar to how Blackberry is starting to do. But, I have little hope of that happening. So, I pick Android.


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