The second panel talk at Mobile Games Forum 2013 in London covered that old chestnut of 'Cross platform promotion: how to target your market'.

Perhaps unsurprising given the make up of the panel - which included several monetisation companies - it was hot on Android's longterm future.

"I still believe the longterm opportunity on Android is far greater than iOS in terms of the openness of the platform," reckoned Paul Bowen, GM Europe of Tapjoy - a company that's had many battles with Apple over the years.

Greg Robinson, COO of Android publisher Connect2Media pointed out that 'cycle times are much faster on Android in terms of iteration'.

"You can do several cycles on Android in the time it takes for Apple to approve your update," he said.

Janis Zech, CRO of SponsorPay, argued that while iOS is currently the place the most focused developers launch on, Android has more longterm scale.

"And monetisation rates are going up significantly," he said.

Richard Firminger, GM Europe of analytics outfit Flurry added a proviso. "It depends if your balance is virtual goods or virtual goods and advertising," he said.

"Virtual goods monetisation is x3 better on iOS than Android, while Android is better for developers looking for advertising revenue."

Future perfect?

Anyhow, in the future, Zech reckoned the technical obstacles of going cross-platform will be less of an issue.

"In two years, I don't think we will talk about cross-platform as there will be technical solutions," he said. "Then it will be more about whether you want to release your game cross-platform."

Taking a questions about the viral opportunities of going cross-platform - in terms of someone on iOS wanting to play their friend who has an Android device - Bowen answered, "I don't think social layers on mobile are currently good enough for [the lack of] cross-platform gaming to be a big issue."

And taking the publisher view, Robinson said while companies can't book advertising campaigns into platforms/app stores, the vagaries of being featured reduce the opportunities of releasing on multiple platforms at the same time.

"Unless you have a massive hit, I don't think the trickle through between platforms is an issue," he said. "Doing a multi-platform launch is very difficult unless you have the marketing budget of an EA."