What do we need to know before iOS 8/Android L come out?

iOS 8 comes out in just under 2 weeks, so we should be getting our ios games ready right now. I have no idea where to start, but I heard that phonegap will replace cocoonjs and ejecta for ios exporting for iOS 8. Can we compile for phonegap and test on our ios devices right now?

What proportion of users do you think will update to iOS 8 when its released? How about 6 months after its release, or 1 year?

As I understand it, Phonegap for iOS8 should be comparable to running Chrome preview over wifi for performance or features.

I'm using iOS 8 right now, but I'm still using CocoonJS for my game. I could probably try Phonegap over the weekend maybe?

What proportion of users do you think will update to iOS 8 when its released? How about 6 months after its release, or 1 year?

As I understand it, Phonegap for iOS8 should be comparable to running Chrome preview over wifi for performance or features.

Hi —, I don't have an Iphone, so could you explain to me please why you think it will take 6month-1year untill IOS users adept to IOS8 once it's released? With Android, once a new firmware is available, you get a notification, press update and that's it. Since everyone uses their phone daily, it shouldn't take more than a week, till everyone whose phone is eligible for the update has it. Since IOS8 is for Iphone 4GS and above, we should quickly see an overall upgrade rate of 75%

> What proportion of users do you think will update to iOS 8 when its released? How about 6 months after its release, or 1 year?

>

> As I understand it, Phonegap for iOS8 should be comparable to running Chrome preview over wifi for performance or features.

>

Hi —, I don't have an Iphone, so could you explain to me please why you think it will take 6month-1year untill IOS users adept to IOS8 once it's released? With Android, once a new firmware is available, you get a notification, press update and that's it. Since everyone uses their phone daily, it shouldn't take more than a week, till everyone whose phone is eligible for the update has it. Since IOS8 is for Iphone 4GS and above, we should quickly see an overall upgrade rate of 75%

For android, every maker do not make an update for every devices right away, it can take months, even years in some cases.

And then the user has to update it manually, sure there is a notification, but that means the user has to bother doing it, it seems most of them just wont do it until they feel like it.

Some manufacturers even dropped support for some of the Android devices and it wont get any more official updates. For example Galaxy S3. It will stuck on Android 4.3 unless the user wiiling to install custom roms...

Last I saw, the adoption rate of new OSes is terrible for Android and not much better for iOS. Even one year onward after launch, we could be seeing a situation where iOS8 isn't even 50% of the market.

So, you wan't to use Phonegap exclusively? Kiss goodbye to a very large segment of your potential customers.

This is why CocoonJS being open source is great, as is for Ejecta (which for some insane reason still refuses to work for my games heh).

I remember last year when ios 7 came out, almost 70% were on ios 7 before a week had passed

I remember last year when ios 7 came out, almost 70% were on ios 7 before a week had passed

http://chitika.com/insights/2013/ios-7-adoption

Longer term, many months later 75%, and currently at 90%.

http://www.fiksu.com/ipad-iphone-and-io ... n-trackers

Thanks Tumira and Aphrodite for your replies, but i was specifically talking about IOS8 and not Android. For Android we have Crosswalk for now, so that side is covered.

And — I still don't get your point, even in your charts it says that people switched very fast from IOS6 to IOS7. Within the first month around 50%, and after 3month 75%.

75% is generally good enough for me. Since the rest may most likely not be too active with their phones and may not be interested in playing games anyway.

A device list and some vague statistics on their market share would be helpful, for example the iPhone 4 has roughly 14% of the iPhone market - and won't be getting iOS 8.

Allchix

While iOS8 with the potential of Phonegap is great, the point is that CocoonJS or Ejecta (for many users) works on iOS5, 6, 7 and 8.

Adoption happens over time and we won't know how iOS8 will behave with user adoption.

Android is worse for new OS adoption so Android L may not be a viable target for awhile.

A device list and some vague statistics on their market share would be helpful, for example the iPhone 4 has roughly 14% of the iPhone market - and won't be getting iOS 8.

I think there are no official numbers, this is the best indicator i could find:

http://david-smith.org/iosversionstats/

Allchix

While iOS8 with the potential of Phonegap is great, the point is that CocoonJS or Ejecta (for many users) works on iOS5, 6, 7 and 8.

Adoption happens over time and we won't know how iOS8 will behave with user adoption.

Android is worse for new OS adoption so Android L may not be a viable target for awhile.

—

Yes I understand your point. I too prefer 100% marketshare over 75%. But I couldn't find out how and if it is possible to monetize your game with Ejecta. On the other hand I don't trust Ludei/CocoonJs. They still don't make any money and I can see no clear direction the company is going. Some other guy in this forum went to a convention where Ludei was present and said that they were looking for a new investor eventually. But you know, I as an investor wouldn't put my money into a company that burned through $17million without any visual business plan. In addition, now that we have Intel Crosswalk for Android, which is free and trustworthy, and Phonegap for IOS8, there is no real need for Ludei in this game anymore.

So what happens to our games if Ludei goes bankrupt? I just want to limit my risk and have my games in save hands.

iOS is much, much faster at distributing updates than Android. Apple publish official numbers here: https://developer.apple.com/support/appstore/

One year after release, 92% of iOS devices are on the latest version. It only took ~3 months to reach 75%. I think it is fair to assume iOS 8 will see a similar update pace.

Compare that to Android (official numbers here: http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html) where about a year after release, only about 25% of users are on the latest version. Android L+ will be equally great with PhoneGap, but obviously if it goes at the same rate as KitKat will take much longer to reach vast-majority status. Still, it bodes well for the long term, and in the mean time we have Crosswalk which provides an excellent real browser-based platform and runs on Android 4.0+ (currently 88% of all Android devices and still increasing).

The compatibility problems and bugs in the non-browser wrappers like CocoonJS and Ejecta can be quite problematic for a lot of users. iOS 8+ will also be considerably faster with its WebGL support - possibly up to twice as fast. I think it is well worth targeting iOS 8+ / Android 4.0+ only for the vastly better compatibility and performance. You still reach the vast majority of users. The other way round you reach slightly more users, but have often severe bugs to deal with, and possibly lower performance for all users. Obviously it's everyone's choice to make themselves, but my confidence that it's a tradeoff worth making is part of the reason we deprecated CocoonJS.