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Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

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Re: Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

#11

Post by cryptoz »

ryanhuff wrote: post #9
cryptoz wrote: post #6

As an Android developer, I love this trend. It's amazing to be able to reach such a large and growing audience in the mobile world without having to live inside Apple's ecosystem. It's also exciting that the high-end Android phones out now are increasingly awesome. I hope this translates into an increase in paid apps' success, given that more users with more money seem to be using Android.

Are you selling Android apps in the Market? If you are, have you experienced any changes in peoples propensity to purchase Android apps in the Market?

I'm not selling yet, no. I've released one app in the market (pressureNET, a crowdsourced barometer network for tablets) that I'm looking to monetize over the next few months and I'm hoping selling weather prediction apps will be possible :)

I'm still in the very early stages of the free app, though, so there's lots of room and little data from my end on selling paid apps.

Re: Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

#12

Post by napierzaza »

There are an infinite number of metrics to compare devices. But this is a pretty general one.

You could also do profits, users, developers, developer income, apps available. Give it up, it's arbitrary and you're not doing much more than justifying the conclusions you've already made about the platform.

Re: Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

#13

Post by samstokes »

napierzaza wrote: post #12

There are an infinite number of metrics to compare devices. But this is a pretty general one. You could also do profits, users, developers, developer income, apps available. Give it up, it's arbitrary and you're not doing much more than justifying the conclusions you've already made about the platform.

The audience for this metric isn't consumers choosing whether to get an iPhone or an Android phone. It's developers choosing whether to support iOS, Android or both. For that audience, this is a very relevant metric. It's also a fairly objective one.

(Of course there's a second-order effect: users will choose a platform partly according to how well it's supported by developers. But anyone choosing which phone to buy now on the basis of this metric is betting on a longer term than they'll probably keep that phone for.)

Re: Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

#16

Post by bstar77 »

The one thing that's not possible to test is when a download is uninstalled, which affects this metric significantly.

I find that I install a lot of android apps, but uninstall the vast majority of them. My iOS device, on the other hand, gets fewer downloads, but virtually all are paid and virtually all have stayed for good.

After owning 3 android devices, iPod touch and an iPad 2, I've come to the conclusion that the iOS apps are substantially better. To balance the field I have to download many android apps to find the best ones, which has been a challenge because most of the android and amazon markets are complete crap.

One example... I use audiogalaxy for streaming music. The iOS version is perfection, it streams well, UI has no glitches that I've found and it uses the iOS dev patterns well. The android version has many UI issues, it's sluggish and buffering works, but not as well as iOS. In addition, the menu system is convoluted on android making it very difficult to navigate. This is just one example, there are many android apps that have these issues (same thing with beyondpod).

I am impressed with android numbers (those of us who bought G1's never thought this day would come), but I don't think it's translating into more sales. Android still has a long way to go before it catches up with iOS, imo.

Re: Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

#17

Post by archgrove »

If true, this has been a while coming, but I'm taking the source with a grain of salt. It makes no mention of methodology for data gathering. Apple don't, in general, share their data. Nor do Google. It doesn't mention of what a "Mobile App download" is. Are iPod Touch and iPad included in the stats (which make more > 50% of iOS installations)? In app purchase data? What about Amazon App Store?

Of course, the only way to get the even skimpy details is to cough up a price (that isn't even available until you log in). The rest of their site seems to indicate that "Mobile" means phone handsets, which are not the only source of installs for iOS and Android.

Edit: I had a small rant about "analysts", the plague of our industry, but decided it didn't add anything (I hope I'm preaching to the converted).

Re: Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

#18

Post by hullo »

nextparadigms wrote: post #7

It seems the number of Android ad impressions has doubled over iOS ad impressions, too: http://phandroid.com/2011/10/25/millennial-android-doubles-i...

No, that's not actually the case. Or at least, not from that report. The Millennial numbers are about one thing alone: the Millennial network. If we knew that the install base for Millennial-provided ads exactly mirrored the install base for smartphones, then yes, but: that's not actually the case, as different ad nets are used to different extents on different devices. For example, you could put out a press release trumpeting iOS 100% domination of mobile ads if you just used numbers from iAds...

Re: Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

#19

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

samstokes wrote: post #13
napierzaza wrote: post #12

There are an infinite number of metrics to compare devices. But this is a pretty general one. You could also do profits, users, developers, developer income, apps available. Give it up, it's arbitrary and you're not doing much more than justifying the conclusions you've already made about the platform.

The audience for this metric isn't consumers choosing whether to get an iPhone or an Android phone. It's developers choosing whether to support iOS, Android or both. For that audience, this is a very relevant metric. It's also a fairly objective one. (Of course there's a second-order effect: users will choose a platform partly according to how well it's supported by developers. But anyone choosing which phone to buy…

The 2010 revenue for the App Store was something like 17 times that of the Android Market even with a smaller market share.

I think the platform you pick has more to do with how your application/service works rather than market share.

Re: Android Overtakes Apple with 44% Worldwide Share of Mobile App Downloads

#20

Post by samstokes »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #19
samstokes wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The audience for this metric isn't consumers choosing whether to get an iPhone or an Android phone. It's developers choosing whether to support iOS, Android or both. For that audience, this is a very relevant metric. It's also a fairly objective one. (Of course there's a second-order effect: users will choose a platform partly according to how well it's supported by developers. But anyone choosing which phone to buy…

The 2010 revenue for the App Store was something like 17 times that of the Android Market even with a smaller market share. I think the platform you pick has more to do with how your application/service works rather than market share.

Sure, number of potential installs isn't the only relevant metric. I was just questioning the assertion that it wasn't a relevant metric at all.
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