We see 90%+ piracy on Android, but we still get a nice % of our revenue from the platform, definitely. In fact, with our experience we have earned WAY more from premium games than freemium on Android. Think about it this way... no matter how many people pirate your game on that platform, you'll still get some paying users. If you don't release the game on the platform at all, you'll get 0 extra paying users. But its a time proposition... if you're using a pre-canned engine it would seem like a no brainer to me. Obviously if its your own engine, its a different story, where there may be legit work involved... but still, if you set it up correctly, you're setting yourself up for future conversions as well.
A few years back, I was like you. The first iPhone got me developing mobile games and I was reluctant to move anywhere away from that. Revenue % from Android back in the years weren't helping either. But things has changed in the recent years. Android market share is through the roof and if you're making a free ad based games, there's no way you should avoid that market (even with lower CPI). Similarly there are many factors on why cross platform will be beneficial to your exposure. From one angle, consider them as a lottery ticket. Getting on both platforms get you two. Secondly, assuming that if your game do take off in either platform. Limiting to one market is bad. Consider how both iOS/Android games site writing about your game or how someone can just tell their friends about this awesome new game. People tend to play more/longer when their friends are in it too. Even if people do pirate your games, the indirect benefits they bring to the game is great
Initially I was developing just for iOS but I think generally it's not the best idea. I'm now learning Unity to open up to other platforms without massive porting efforts.
I've been developing apps exclusively for iOS, but I think I'll start porting and developing apps for Android as well soon. Fortunately I use Unity3D for everything so it should work out just fine.
