> I imagine it's because you don't need a dev account

This is finally fixed in Xcode 7.

https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documenta...

and you don't need a mac to develop android apps, so for most people android app is essentially free.

This has already blocked me. Developed an android app, was asked by several friends to port it to Apple, didn't want to shell out for a Mac. Even the Minis, a popular "get a Mac platform for cheap" choice, are several hundred dollars used.

I've heard of people running MacOS and XCode from VirtualBox/QEMU/etc. I guess you would have to pay for the Mac OS software to install on the VM, but it would save you on hardware costs.

I didn't think that the OS X license let you run it anywhere other than Apple hardware. That's just something I've heard though, never actually investigated it.

I doubt this is true. I know that historically, Apple users were limited to Apple hardware by the nature of the architecture. However, Apple switched to using the same hardware as the rest of the PC world.

Another option would be to make a Hackintosh, actually; if you have a sufficiently powerful spare machine; this would also need the OS software, so virtualizing is probably just as easy.

The latest Mac Mini (2014) I saw had soldered RAM and a slow processor, so older used versions should be even more popular....

Not to mention you need a Mac for iOS development. If your entire team (or at least all of the mobile developers on your team) don't have Macs, you're limited to Android.

Only commenting as I've been sniffing around Visual Studio 2015 tonight and they keep boasting you can develop fully native iOS apps in it now: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/features/mobile-app-devel...

You still need a Mac to compile.

Having been to many hackathons, I'd say that far and away the most likely reason for this is that Java is taught in most CS curriculums. Hence students can come in and make an Android app over the weekend, whereas building an iOS app would require learning a whole new language.

I bet if you looked at winning hacks the Android skew would be much less defined (as winning hacks are usually developed by people who learn outside of class and have prior experience with the platform).

I was also thinking that many CS students learn Java as part of their degree (though I don't have stats handy), so Android is a natural extension there.

my intro cs class @ cmu was in java back in 2001 -- but now they teach python (major win imo)

I was surprised Android wasn't a higher percentage... Look at it this way:

78% of the current smartphone market is Android, 18% is iOS. [1] (4.3:1 in favor of Android)

According to the article, 38% of hackathon devs are interested in Android dev, and 22% are interested in iOS Dev. (1.72:1 in favor of Android)

From this perspective, desire to develop for iOS is MUCH higher than market representation, meaning that (as I read the numbers) comparatively, Android appears to be the weaker choice -- and that amongst hackathon developers, iOS is far over-represented compared to the market as a whole, as I assume most at these events use their own devices.

[1] http://www.idc.com/prodserv/smartphone-os-market-share.jsp

The 78% is worldwide, and a lot of Android's share is in countries where price is king (Android devices start at $50 unlocked). In the US Android has ~50% of the market and I imagine the US has the majority of the world's hackathons (esp. ones that would be represented in this survey).

I'd assume the missing link is the percentage of users of each platform that are willing to pay for apps. Given iOS has a higher entry cost, it'd make sense that more iOS users would pay for stuff.

People at this kind of hackathon aren't caring as much about that as they are "what kind of hardware do I have and how easy will it be to get this to work".

That's a fact. Android users are cheap when it comes to paid apps.