Platform Wars: Android vs. iOS
Lookout Mobile Security has released today a series of interesting data comparing the Android application and iOS stores in various aspects, including the amount of apps available and developers working with each platform as well as its growth between August 2010 and February 2011. This survey is part of the project “App Genome”.
In terms of quantity, the Android market has more than doubled in size over the last six months, going from 40k apps to 90k, with an increase of 127%. Meanwhile, the iOS App Store was 250k to 350k applications, an increase of 44% only. If both maintaining these rates of expansion, the Android market must reach iOS Apple store in mid 2012.
To do this, of course, Google will need developers, developers and developers. However, this population is not growing at a similar pace; developers committed to Google’s platform increased by 40%, while on the side of Apple’s growth was 48%. However the staff that embraces the Android market is more prolific; each creator has averaged 6.6 applications on Android market, while in iOS App Store this average is 4.8.
When it is time to charge for apps, Android is at a clear disadvantage. By having a system of payments already completely ripe, Apple has a much larger proportion of paid apps in their store. In turn, the market for Google seems to be maturing, with a good fall in the amount of free applications.
In terms of price paid apps from the Android market suffered a remarkable rise, while in iOS App Store things got more or less stable.