Hacker Neue

Preferences
charlesabarnes parent
It's pretty frustrating that every release is IOS first without any timeline or expectation for Android
outime
This may explain it: https://9to5mac.com/2023/09/06/iphone-users-spend-apps/
poly2it
It is also relevant to know if a user who'd otherwise use app X on iOS would use X less on Android.
rldjbpin
this makes sense for apps where you pay up front to use it. for subscription-based services, this idea falls flat.

in fact, apple made it harder for apps to take payments from its users in the past than others.

alwillis
Not unusual; most high profile apps ship on iOS first, going back to Instagram [1], which was released October 10, 2010. Instagram shipped their Android version 1.5 years later.

[1]: https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/Instagram

spondyl
Another, not incompatible explanation is that it's also just easier to develop for a handful of known iOS/iPadOS targets compared to Android's unbounded set of screen sizes and device specs.
wahnfrieden
If your app runs on iPadOS, you already need to support every "screen size" (window size)

Android is simply a much worse platform to make money on. Users spend <25% as much as iOS users. Why would they prioritize that?

djmips
In practice Android is much more difficult to handle the myriad of offerings - Have you ever tried both? To your other point, what app spend would Anthropic be worried about - they have a subscription model.
wahnfrieden
They sell through the app, too. And Android users are just as unlikely to spend outside of apps as they are inside them. Android deprioritization is a business decision, not a technical complexity decision.
mh-
Anthropic supports in-app purchases for Claude subscriptions, at least in the US.
pjmlp
Because 70% of the mobile phone world runs on Android.

It is like trying to make a living selling games to macOS users.

bapak
Please take a look at the percentage of paying Android users. It just does not compare. It's useless to count 2 billion users in third world countries who never have and never will pay anything in-app.
wahnfrieden
Users spend <25% as much as iOS users, and less than half in total despite larger user counts (having double the users who spend <25% each does not add up!), a gap that widens year over year. Why would they prioritize that?

Why would they care about prioritizing users who spend much less? Android pays <25% per user. You need a LOT more than 70% to make that worth prioritizing. Those users are just going to eat up free tier resources without paying. It's borderline parasitic from a business perspective.

Android users are more likely to be useful for spreading word-of-mouth reputation to Apple platform users, than they are as direct spenders. Just another reason to ensure Apple platform features don't trail Android.

pjmlp
iOS/iPadOS aren't exactly the same, without bothering to count, there are about 10 screen sizes to account for, and Apple contrary to Android world, doesn't have somethine like JetPack, either the user updates their phone or there are no new features for the apps to rely on.
pjmlp
It is basically a US centric view of mobile OS market share.
aaronbrethorst
Anthropic is a US-based company.
pjmlp
Some companies would rather have a more international user base.

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

So maybe they rather please the home market, I guess.

OJFord
With a global market and extant user base.
richardw
It’s much harder dealing with all the complexities of different devices, screen sizes, OS versions.

https://www.reddit.com/r/applesucks/comments/1k6m2fi/why_do_...

bahmboo
Anthropic and Apple have a strategic partnership. It's a bit dicey but still seems to be in play. Which is interesting considering Google is a major investor and Apple is not. Anthropic wants Apple as a paying customer. Apple wants them to bend the knee.
lvl155
Apple also has relationship with OAI. They’re not preferential.
bahmboo
Yes but the question was why Anthropic is showing more attention to iOS vs Android.
wahnfrieden
Android is a tiny market
OJFord
You probably mean 'in the US', where iOS is 58%. Android has a 71% global market share.
bdcravens
Yes, if all you consider are the number of devices in use. However once you segment by devices with performance to run a given app and financial demographics that match your target customer, the numbers change.
wahnfrieden
No. Why do user counts matter? High user count but with >4x thriftiness / aversion to spending is not an attractive market over iOS.

Globally in dollars spent, not human heads. iOS is over 2x larger than Android globally, and the gap is widening year over year.

iOS spending growth outpaces Android, which even shrunk during covid while iOS spending continued to grow

https://api.backlinko.com/app/uploads/2024/03/iphone-vs-andr...

Anthropic makes money off product sales, not ad revenue, so wallets count more than eyes for this. Free users who are less than 25% as likely to spend are a burden not to be prioritized for a product business with free tier access. They need to spend much more to get a paying user on Android.

If Android were the bigger market, they'd prioritize it

This item has no comments currently.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Story Lists

j
Next story
k
Previous story
Shift+j
Last story
Shift+k
First story
o Enter
Go to story URL
c
Go to comments
u
Go to author

Navigation

Shift+t
Go to top stories
Shift+n
Go to new stories
Shift+b
Go to best stories
Shift+a
Go to Ask HN
Shift+s
Go to Show HN

Miscellaneous

?
Show this modal