Comment by jasode

3 hours ago

>I don't see any iOS advantage with the apps anymore. That was maybe true in the very beginning, during the gold rush time of the app store. But not since then. In which category are there better iOS apps?

I researched iOS vs Android last year so some of my info may be out of date but this is what I collected.

Apple iOS exclusives (or earlier app versions because devs prioritized iOS):

  ChatGPT iOS app -2 months before Android
  Sora -2 months before 2025-11 Android
  Bluesky iOS app -2 months before Android (February 2023 iOS invitation-only beta; April 2023, it was released for Android)
  Blackmagic Design camera 2023-09-15  -9 months before Android  2024-06-24
  Halide camera app  https://old.reddit.com/r/ios/comments/17klq40/what_are_some_good_examples_of_iphoneexclusive/k7efznt/
  Zoom F6  https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/software-product-page/software-sub-cat/F6-control-app/   https://apps.apple.com/us/app/f6-control/id1464118916
  Godox Light    https://www.diyphotography.net/godox-finally-launches-android-app-for-the-a1-but-only-for-some-phones/
  ForeFlight Mobile   https://support.foreflight.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004919307-Does-ForeFlight-Mobile-work-on-Android-devices  https://old.reddit.com/r/flying/comments/1883eya/the_authoritative_answer_to_why_isnt_foreflight/
  Adobe Fresco
  Procreate
  FlexRadio SmartSDR SSDR  2023-10-27T13:15:09+00:00  https://community.flexradio.com/discussion/8029186/smartsdr-for-android-device

Google Android app exclusives

  TouchDRO for milling
  Kodi media player

There really aren't many popular/prominent Android-only apps that's intended for direct consumer download from the Google Play Store. Instead, Android dominates in OEM use as "turnkey" and "embedded" base os as the GUI for their customized hardware devices:

  Amazon Fire Stick, car infotainment, music workstations, sewing machine GUI, geology soil tester, etc

If it's a typical mainstream user (browser + Youtube/Tiktok + WhatsApp etc), they won't see any iOS ecosystem advantages over Android.

2 comments

jasode

palata 3 hours ago

It seems like a pretty arbitrary list to me...

Also Android has a bigger market share in the world than iOS, by a lot.

jasode 2 hours ago

>Also Android has a bigger market share in the world than iOS, by a lot.
The tone of that seems like you thought I was taking the discussion into fanboy evangelism and therefore Android needed to be defended. That wasn't the intent and I already tried to downplay my comment by stating the iOS ecosystem specifics do not matter to 99% of mainstream users. Yes, everybody on HN already knows Android has a much bigger market share.
The point was simply to inform the gp asking the question about iOS that there are apps and niches he may not be aware of. Nobody's trying to convince any reader of switching to iOS or that "iOS is superior" ... or vice versa!