New versions of both iOS and Android were recently released and both of them were equally well received by developers. The Beta 3 of the iOS 6 was put up for download and Android Jellybean was unveiled and both of them had equal number of downloads by developers indicating that application developers are warming up to Android now. For the last couple of years, the iOS used to catch all the attention from software developers when a new version was released when compared to the new versions of Google’s Android OS. This time, however, within 24 hours of release, the Jellybean got almost the same attention as the iOS 6 Beta 3 did.
The data was collected and analyzed by Chitika, a data analysis firm, and the company says that this could be an indication that Android development is fast catching up to iOS development in terms of the number of developers working on the platform. This may not be a drastic change but it is more like a trend that is slowly catching on according to analysts at the firm. The popularity of Android devices has shot up recently and perhaps this has caught the attention of developers who are looking at it as another lucrative market. In fact, it is possible that Android could soon trump iOS considering the way things are going now. With developer interests equalizing after the balance being tilted in iOS’ favor for years, Android could surely take the lead pretty soon.
iOS 6 Beta 3 was released to developers on July 16th and traffic to the server was 0.11% for the download. Similarly, Jellybean was released on July 9th and it was met with 0.1% of all Android traffic, strikingly similar to the amount the iOS 6 was responsible for. Currently, iOS holds a market share of 50.2% and Android has 46.7% which is nearly an equal split. The numbers were way different when Android was first released and the iPhone was already in the market.
Apple released its second quarter results recently and indicated a slowdown in iPhone sales. Meanwhile, Android phone sales are booming but the total numbers are in favor of the iPhone, which already has more than 1 billion smartphones sold. The main advantage Apple has is that its market is not fragmented by multiple devices but despite that, developers are not going to shun Android anytime soon.
July 29, 2012 at 1:35 pm
I think Chitika’s analysis and subsequent findings only reveal that which we’ve long sensed but, until now, have been unable to back up with evidence. Between the general excitement of the Android developer community today and the explosion in profitability for Android-heavy mobile ad buyers (just take the surge at http://www.airpush.com as one shining example) the momentum is clearly with Android. And I think that developer interest will do more than almost anything else to drive Android to new heights from both a user and profitability standpoint.