The Great Aviation Tablet War

Tablets themselves are nice gadgets with an attractive form factor. They are sleek and lightweight, have simple user interfaces and rarely need much technical support (just cycle the power and it typically clears out most issues) — so what is not to love?

Once we get past the subtle differences between an Apple iPad Air, Samsung Galaxy, Microsoft Surface 2 RT and other such tablets (as discussed in Part 1 of this article in the May issue), it is the applications software, aka ‘apps,’ that matters.

It is mostly the IT departments that care about the underlying operating system and connectivity of a tablet, since larger entities need to provide support and provide integration of a device into a networked environment. End users are rarely overly concerned with such matters. This is why the first version of the Apple iPad was seen rather derisively by corporate customers and some of the technical media. The iPad used the same basic operating system (OS) as Apple iPhones, which was a greatly reduced functionality as traditional operating systems, and thus relegated to the consumer market — which loved it, as did pilots.

What was not foreseen by many is the appeal of an easy-to-use device that rarely needs professional IT support personnel to operate and maintain. This actually gave end users a bit more freedom away from the prying eyes and hands of IT departments, and allowed them to use a device as they desired to use it, not as some dude in a cubicle in the corner of a network server lab wanted them to. You can almost say that the initial iPad was a tool of the proletariat against their overlords in the IT department.

It did not take long for the term ‘app’ to become a widely-used moniker for software applications on tablets and smartphones. Many of the early apps developed were focused on individual consumers or specific functions and not aimed at typical corporate or business functions. This remains mostly true today as well, with games, social networking and music-related apps being among the most downloaded.

It did not take business-focused software companies long to port their MS Windows-based applications on the Apple iOS platform (and, lately, onto the Google Android platform as well). In fact, due to the fact that Android-based phones and tablets outsell iOS devices (since Google provides its OS for free to device manufacturers, while Apple does not license its software to anyone else), there are more Android apps downloaded than iOS apps today.

The Economics of the App Market

Apps are the economic engine that drives the entire tablet ecosystem. They are the main revenue-generators for the software providers (Apple, Google and Microsoft), and are what the key hardware OEMs (Samsung in the Google world, and all of the PC/tablets manufacturers that use Microsoft Windows) depend upon for various reasons.

Before we delve into a discussion on aviation-related apps, let’s take a look at the overall market for tablet applications today.

• Overall tablet app market (source: ABI Research)

- Revenues in 2013: $8.8 billion (projected)

- ~75 percent of these apps will be for games

• Apple iOS apps:

- Using recent published estimates, there are more than 500,000 apps specifically available for iPads (and more than 1.25M total for all iOS devices)

- More than 60 billion total apps have been downloaded (for all devices), and ~$15B being paid out to developers over the years by Apple

• Google Play (formerly Android Market) apps:

- 1M apps overall for all devices (tablet-specific apps not identified)

- More than 48 billion total apps have been downloaded (for all devices) and ~$900M being paid out to developers over the years by Google

While Android devices outsell Apple devices, Apple’s iTunes store sales far outpace Google Play revenue. Reported estimates from industry sources indicate that Apple’s iTunes store recognized ~56 percent of the total of total profit in the mobile device market. This is why more software developers support the iOS platform.

Aviation users are more used to paying subscription fees, which give software and data providers a more reliable revenue stream, thus allowing for higher-quality apps and information.

Aviation-focused Apps:

Build Them and They Will Come

As previously mentioned, it did not take long for software developers, EFB providers, and other aviation industry service providers to see the value of a ~$500 device that could be used to host their products.

The iPad has taken a strong lead as the device of choice in aviation, and many of the software developers only support this platform due to costs. According to John Zimmerman, vice president at Sporty’s Pilot Shop and publisher of the iPad Pilot News (ipadpilotnews.com), “Apple iOS-based apps outsell Google Android-based apps by a factor of up to seven to one (approximately). Aviation is mostly iPad and not much Android.” Sporty’s estimates that iOS apps command a ~80 percent market share in aviation, and that Android is doing poorly in general aviation.

Major aviation app developers seem to agree, with ForeFlight having no apps available for Android and other providers’ offerings lagging behind their iOS products. If the market demands iPad-compliant software, the developers will follow. The exception seems to be Garmin, which offers a comprehensive Android version of its Garmin Pilot app. But according to various reports, even this app usually trails behind the iOS version in terms of features.

A major reason for this is that Google allows the tablet hardware OEMs to design around older versions of the Android OS. This causes headaches for software developers trying to support multiple versions of software. You can expect Google to address this looming issue eventually.

Microsoft is the dark horse in this battle, since it has a large market share in the enterprise market for office and productivity applications, not to mention desktop and server operating systems. It has not been able to garner much support for its early Windows 8 efforts on tablets (and PCs), but if anyone can catch Apple (and even Google) in tablet software, it is Microsoft.

Most Downloaded Aviation Apps

In researching the most downloaded apps relating to ‘aviation’ for Apple and Google tablets, we used AppCrawlr.com to pinpoint our list. This research site identified 208 aviation apps for the iPad/iPhone and 114 for the Android platform. We further refined this by selecting only those identified for ‘pilots’ (the quoted items were used in selections in this site). For the sake of brevity, we have provided the top ten downloaded aviation apps using these criteria, and the results were quite interesting (shown in Table 1). With the caveat that some of the iOS apps are not available on Android devices, none of the apps listed on each appeared for the other device (although some of these appeared further down in the lists if you drilled down into the top 50). AppCrawlr also provides rankings for key subcategories, which are also provided in the table.

Table 1: Most Downloaded Aviation Apps for Pilots

Another Web site, iPad Pilot News by Sporty’s Pilot Shop (http://ipadpilotnews.com/2013/12/editors-choice-top-apps-2013/), provides recommendations and reviews of general aviation-focused apps for the iPad, and also supports Android. In the list below, they provide ten of their favorite (in no particular order) and you can read more about them on their Web site:

1.  Weight and Balance/Performance: Gyronimo

2.  Weather: WSI Pilotbrief Optima

3.  NEXRAD radar: MyRadar

4.  Flight Track Recording: CloudAhoy

5.  Flight Tracking: FlightAware

6.  Charts on a Budget: FltPlan.com Go

7.  International Charts: SkyDemon

8.  Flight Computer: Sporty’s E6B

9.  Logbook: LogTen Pro

10.  Private Pilot Training: Learn to Fly Course

11.  Pilot Proficiency: PilotWorkshops

12.  Best “I Can’t Believe My iPad Can Do That” App: Cloud Topper

Rather than rehash others content, we encourage each of you to learn more about any of apps that might appeal to you.

Conclusion

Many magazines and aviation Web sites have their own lists of recommended apps. I attempted to simply identify ideas for you to consider and research on your own, along with some background information on the tablet and apps industry niches. The market for apps is constantly changing and expanding, so any such list becomes outdated rather quickly. The part to keep in mind is that Apple is trumping its rivals at the moment in the mobile computing market, and should do so the foreseeable future. Google’s Android has a place, but it seems to be second place, and unless it changes how its hardware OEM partners utilize Android, it will never be able to grow much. Microsoft cannot be counted out due to its dominance in the enterprise and desktop/laptop markets, and even more, due to its history of being a follower and capitalizing later on the mistakes of others.

But, for the next year or so, iPads will continue to rule aviation.

The final installment of this series on tablets in aviation will be on security issues.

John Pawlicki is CEO and principal of OPM Research. He also works with Information Tool Designers (ITD), where he consults to the DOT’s Volpe Center, handling various technology and cyber security projects for the FAA and DHS. He managed and deployed various products over the years, including the launch of CertiPath (with world’s first commercial PKI bridge). John has also been part of industry efforts at the ATA/A4A, AIA and other industry groups, and was involved in the effort to define and allow the use of electronic FAA 8130-3 forms, as well as in defining digital identities with PKI. His recent publication, ‘Aerospace Marketplaces Report’ which analyzed third-party sites that support the trading of aircraft parts is available on OPMResearch.com as a PDF download, or a printed book version is available on Amazon.com.