[QUOTE=PatNY;2369087]Do you have anything to back up that contention? That there are a lot of developers doing this for free and as a hobby? I have a hard time believing that. [\quote]
Why? There are a huge number of developers on various platforms who give away their code for free.
Quote:
|
Also, AFAIK, the developers of iOS apps don't have to pay for the iOS to experiment on either. So your point "a" seems to not make any sense.
|
You have to sign up for Apple's development programme at $99 a year. Not noticeable to commercial developers, but offputting to hobby ones.
Quote:
You really haven't set forth logical reasons for why developers appear to be opting for Android over iOS. So it has to be money.
Even if these apps are free, they are generating revenue for developers with in-app advertising. So since it's harder to code for Android, there is no incentive to do so unless the promise of overall revenues were greater.
|
So, under your logic, why does Linux exist?
Why does the GNU toolset exist?
Why does calibre exist?
They are hard to write, and (at least initially) generated no revenue, so there was no incentive to write them, yes?
Thre is a very large free software community that is happy to give away code for free, even if you don't think that makes sense.
Quote:
|
A having more apps than B certainly does mean that A has more developers. Of course it does.
|
No it doesn't. It just doesn't.
Each developer is allowed to release more than one app.
Quote:
|
And because developers are free to code for either A or B, the only reason they'd choose A over B is because of potential profit.
|
Profit is not the only driving force. If you don't see that, I suspect we aren't going to get much further.
And developers are not free to develop for both A and B, or rather are not free to develop all the same apps on A and B. There are categories of app which cannot be released for iOS.