Its the way intel xdk compiles your file. When installed it also installs a browser with your game which adds in the extra file size where as cocoon only relies on its canvas.
Yeah, kinda meed that browser.
I was thinking about going to cocoon, hate paying that much just to get rid of a splash screen though.
In Cocoon you can choose to use WebView+ instead of Canvas+. When you build with WebView+ Cocoon includes a whole browser when it builds your game, it's bascially Cocoon's version of the Crosswalk browser that XDK includes when it builds your game (so I've been told). When I was using Cocoon a couple months back, I got very similar performance with Cocoon (WebView+) as with XDK (Crosswalk). Files sizes are similar too.
And if you use WebView+ Cocoon doesn't brand your game, they only put in their splash if you use Canvas+ (pretty sure im right about that... the whole time I was testing with Cocoon (WebView+) I never had their splash screen show in my game..
....As much as I like intel xdk for ios builds i perfer cocoon for android builds just wish there was a working ad plugin for it
I was able to get Cranberry's Chartboost plugin working with Cocoon and XDK. That was one plugin that didnt seem to give any problems..
Appodeal is another possibility. I had that working with XDK, but I can't remember if I had it on Cocoon as well. Appodeal has a dedicated plugin for C2 which is supposed to work with Android and iOS, and its apparently good for revenue. In the end I settled for Chartboost because it was working with no bugs.