This is a conceptual question. It would be great if anyone could clarify the story behind. 

I understand the difference between emulator and simulator. 

**emulator**: mimics the device environment (hardware, network capability etc). More likely we will get a very close result in compare to device. 

**simulator**: uses the running computer's capability. Less likely to get close result to device, as the simulator is using computer's hardware performance.

Android platform is open for developers since 2009 AFIK. Why after all these years the emulator is still (practically) unusable in compare to iOS simulator? Developers have to use either Genymotion or real device even for a small test. Even after HAXM or Snapshot enabled, Android emulator and iOS simulator are not even close to compare. 

Another closely related question is, why the layout editor of Android is too slow and not smooth at all in comparison to iOS Storyboard. 

I believe you would agree that ADT (Eclipse Based) layout editor was simply unusable. Android Studio is doing a much better job, but not up to the mark in any ways. Quite often it gets stuck on my MacBook Pro 2012 model when I edit XML side by side with *Preview* window. 

I understand the Android studio has just been released officially a few months back, but we are talking about only Android specific features. Its not a new IDE from scratch, it has the advantage of all the features of a successful product IntelliJIDEA. 

There is no way an Android dev could possibly get away without editing XML by hand, whereas an iOS dev could and that's how the iOS ecosystem works. Now the iOS platform too has to deal with multiple sizes screen. So its not like Android platform is doing something substantially different, I guess. 

Please pardon me for my poor English skill and beginner level knowledge. Just want to know the justifiable reasons/clarification, never meant to sound harsh or degrade Android ecosystem anyway. 

(P.S: Primarily I am an Android app dev, recently started to learn iOS.)

Thanks in advance.