1.) There's huge fragmentation in the Android ecosphere. Owners are using different versions which have different features and which makes it difficult for developers to have a specific set to target. This has been a problem with Android since day one.
2.) Android works on both smartphone and feature phones (dumbphones). A billion users aren't all smartphone owners.
3.) Google says that there are 1.5 million Android activations per day. What they don't say is that this includes contract renewals of users who are already Android users. 1.5 million activations a day equals 547.5 million per year. Even adding iOS into the mix, when you run the numbers and remember that both platforms have been around since 2007 and 2008, by now every person in the world should be using a smartphone. Obviously that isn't true.
4.) Returning to the chart showing Android's fragmentation, 2.3 Gingerbread was really the first version that could really compete with iOS. 2.2 Froyo and below were unresponsive messes. I know; my LG phone uses 2.2. Phones with 2.2 are still being sold as entry level smartphones.
5.) Looking at app revenue (not app quality), iOS makes up 74% of all app revenue on the market which includes Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. iOS developers make 37% more money than Android developers. And for every $1 customer dollar spent on Google Play, $2.45 is spent on iOS.
The conclusion here is that while Android has more market share, iOS makes much, much more money for developers. iOS developers have less of a range of hardware (two processors: A4 and A5x, two resolutions) and software (iOS 1-4, changes in iOS 5, changes in iOS 6) to target for. And iOS users spend more money than Android users. | |
