Better product to develop for, iPad or Android based tablet in a purely business related application

Question

Hey guys

Just wondering what you'd suggest as the best platform for developing a business application for a tablet device.

The application needs to be multitouch, have access to a maps API, a database on the device.

It will not be going on sale in the app store or Androids market, it is purely for specific business task and not for the general consumer.

Obviously the options seem to be iPhone OS and the iPad or Android and an Android tablet device. The form factor for the end product requires something in the region of 8 inch+ screen and enough processing power to provide a good experience for the end user.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Answer 1

What specific Android tablet did you have in mind? I've heard many rumors and announcements thereof but I've never held one in my hands yet -- is any delivering yet? Once you've picked one or a few possibilities, then you can start discussing the processing power and the like.

Both OS's are certainly good, but you can't compare screen sizes, processing power, battery life, etc, etc, without specific hardware products to compare! Purchase price of the HW is unlikely to be an issue in an enterprise context, where the application's price is more likely to dominate, as is the availability of numerous (mostly consumer oriented) apps. Ease of deployment should be higher for Android, but I don't think that need be a killer issue.

If you have strong preferences for Java vs ObjC that would surely suggest Android, and vice versa. But it's all very theoretical until and unless you have specific tablet HW that you can use and test on for Android.

Answer 2

This is going to be more of a philosophical / coding comfort issue. Both platforms can do what you need.

Answer 3

At this time.. ipad/phone.

It's just more ubiquitous at this point. Develop once and deploy away. If you really want cross compatibility, you can build a HTML5 app that you can deploy to all mobile browsers.

Answer 4

I think you should evaluate development efforts for both platforms. And I think iPhone development effort would be greater than Android.

Answer 5

Android or iPhone: why choose? Formotus just announced iPhone support, which means the same business applications will soon run on both iPhone/iPad and on Android. Check it out:

http://www.formotus.com/DesignOnce.html