The online casino industry is one that has proved resilient to the global events of the past couple of years and the current economic difficulties. Revenue-wise, it is growing at a CAGR of more than 11 percent. From a technological perspective, online casinos have changed their thinking from “mobile friendly” a few years ago to what is certainly “mobile first” today. Mobile is the most popular way to get online, especially in the developing world, where mobile handsets are becoming commonplace, but PCs and laptops are not.
With the focus firmly on mobile, it brings us back to the age old question of how Android and iOS measure up against one another for those who want to gamble online at one of the dozens of web-based casinos in cyberspace. Casinos are about more than just card games and spinning reels. Today’s slot games are far more complex and then there are live dealer games to add to the mix. We all know that in years gone by, gaming has never been an Apple strength. But does it really matter in 2022?
New game development – Android is the yardstick
New slot games are released every week, so the game studios are always working on a pipeline of upcoming titles. Developers use Android as their reference point while creating their new games. They find it easier to work with than iOS.
It’s only when the Android version has been perfected, at least for beta testing, that the developers shift their attention to iOS. This typically takes up painful amounts of time, and developers work on average twice as long getting the iOS prepared for market.
Showing the developer’s vision
The end result? Games sometimes look a little slicker on iOS, but this is only because programmers have put in so many hours ironing out glitches and bugs. Over the course of use, iOS casino apps are likely to need more attention in terms of maintenance and updates.
The Android version, on the other hand, reflects the developer’s vision, bringing you the game that he or she worked so long putting together and in the way that it was envisaged. You are also less likely to encounter bugs or need to worry yourself with software updates or patches.
In the grand scheme of things, iOS and Android are almost indistinguishable from the user’s perspective these days. If you have your own reasons for preferring iOS, online casinos are not going to give you a bad or inferior gaming experience.
However, what we are doing here is looking at those last small percentages. If you were solely using your mobile to play casino games and all other things were equal, Android would still have the advantage, much as it has always done in the eyes of gamers and, indeed, in the eyes of those teams who put in the long hours to make our mobile gambling experience as fun, engaging and trouble-free as possible.
