Google’s Android, which holds 70% of the market share worldwide, and Apple’s iOS, the best-selling in Switzerland, offer largely the same applications. But there may be differences in price, security or quality between the two operating systems, as deciphered by the show On en parole.
By comparing the Apple and Google stores, the show We’re talking about it found that the prices are often close, but sometimes a little more expensive on iOS. A subscription to YouTube Music, for example, costs 17 francs on iOS compared to 12.90 francs on Android.
For Bastien Ricoeur, head of technical web development at Qiminfo and developer of smartphone applications, this difference in costs is due to several reasons: “Apple’s commission policies are generally higher than those of Google. Then, Android, holding much more market share than iOS, earns more money from ad-related monetization.”
The infrastructure factor must also be taken into account: “Deployment on the Apple Store is more complex than on the Google Store, which increases the costs linked to maintenance and deployment. All this necessarily has an impact on the price” , notes Bastien Ricoeur.
App security and quality
In terms of security, the standards are the same at Apple and Android, but there is a big difference in the deployment of applications, and therefore their quality.
Bastien Ricoeur affirms that Apple is much more restrictive in terms of verification: “When we deploy an application on the PlayStore (Android), the verifications are done by robots. At Apple, these are human verifications.”
And to specify: “Performance tests are carried out to check if the application is not too slow and that the image is qualitative. In addition, as for the approval time, it is twice as long on the Apple store than on the PlayStore In conclusion, the Google Play Store is a little more permissive and lower quality applications can be found there.
Impact of European regulations
With new European Union regulations, Apple must enable alternative app stores and, according to Bastien Ricoeur, this could change market dynamics by reducing commission costs and providing more choice to users.
Radio subject: François Jeannet Web adaptation: Laure Pagella
