Published on December 9th, 2015 | by Guest

iOS vs Android – Which is the Best Platform for Gaming?

Mobile gaming has evolved a great deal since Snake was first released by Nokia. Today’s smartphones and mobile operating systems give us “console-grade” graphics and a gaming experience never before seen on pocket-size devices. The mobile market is ruled by two competing platforms – Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android (Windows Phone’s 2.9% is almost irrelevant in most statistics, even if it means millions of users). Let’s take a look at which one of the two is the best platform for playing on the go.

Depends on your favorite games

While iOS offers publishers the more revenue (iPhone owners tend to spend more), and Android the more reach (it has a 82% market share globally), there are very few games that are exclusive for one platform or another. But taking a look at a specific game type, you’ll see that Apple’s mobile platform is a bit more permissive.

Google’s Play Store does not allow real money casino apps to be listed. This means that people seeking to play their favorite slot machines at Royal Vegas need either to use the casino’s browser interface on mobile, or install an app from an “unchecked source”, exposing themselves to risks. Not that the Royal Vegas casino browser app wouldn’t be perfect for the goal. It has a nice collection of mobile slots, and players can use it to securely connect to their Royal Vegas casino accounts, make deposits and withdrawals, and whatever else they need to.

Apple is more permissive with its apps: the Royal Vegas official iPhone / iPad casino app is listed in the App Store. iOS is the platform of choice for real money gaming service providers.

What developers say

To better understand the developers’ dilemma, you have to take a look at the demographics and the spread of their customers.

Developing apps for iOS might seem easier, given the lower fragmentation of devices it runs on. The iPhone is at its sixth major generation, and the oldest models are not supported any more. The hardware and the software is given, making it easier to calculate with anything that might come in the future. But iOS is not the leading mobile OS in any markets. It has a huge market share in the US – almost 50%, second only to Android – but in the rest of the world it’s not.

Android, in turn, is running on over 80% of all smartphones of the world. It is the leading mobile OS in most Asian countries, and has a very strong position in the rest of the world as well. But this leads to a major problem for developers: the huge diversity of devices it runs on. There are phones still in use that run Android 2.2, and its latest version – Lollipop – has only been deployed on a handful of devices compared to the total number of handsets. This is a major challenge for developers – they need to create games that will run on a much broader range of devices compared to iOS.

Basically, it all comes down to preference

If you are a player, you have to choose the mobile OS that’s the best for your needs. Both leading platforms have a huge selection of apps and games, and very few of them are exclusive to one platform or another. So, when it comes to gaming, the choice is yours, and yours alone.

Tags: Android, best, gaming, iOS, platform, which