Android edges Apple iPad as second-most-popular mobile development platform

135

Comments

  • Reply 41 of 98
    Does anyone have a link to the actual study. That chart obviously does not give the % of developers that develop for each platform because it adds up to 100%. You can't tell me that there are no developers that develop for more than one of these platforms. Did they asked the developer what their primary platform was? Did developers that develop for multiple platforms get counted more than once? Also Millenial is an ad network, so are they only counting developers that use their service?
  • Reply 42 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steve-J View Post


    How about all the phones running Android vs. all the phones running iOS? Is that a fair comparison?







    The Wall Street Journal seems to think so:



    "According to market research firm NPD Group, devices with the Android operating system accounted for 44% of new smartphones sold to U.S. consumers in the third quarter. Apple iPhone?s came in second place with 23%."



    But that's the US only, current and prior iPhone only (no iPads, iPod Touches) against all devices running Android.



    Its like a baseball team that says it is only going to count the innings where they score more runs than the opponent.



    All this proves it that anyone can gather whatever statistics they want, then slice and dice them them to conform with their desired results!



    Liars, Damn Liars...



    .
  • Reply 43 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    But that's the US only, current and prior iPhone only (no iPads, iPod Touches) against all devices running Android.



    Its like a baseball team that says it is only going to count the innings where they score more runs than the opponent.



    All this proves it that anyone can gather whatever statistics they want, then slice and dice them them to conform with their desired results!



    Liars, Damn Liars...



    .



    Well, not exactly. It really depends on what data you're trying to analyze. If you're want to look at smartphones only, then it's a valid comparison. Because only the iPhone (its various models) qualifies as a smartphone. You can pick all the various Android smartphones because they all qualify as smartphones. Anything else (on both sides) wouldn't fit in the study.



    But if you want to study strict OS vs. OS, then you'll have to include iPods and iPads and all current Android tablets, media players, and anything else running it.



    Don't get me wrong. People will screw with statistics. Like you said, the numbers will never lie. It's how you represent them.
  • Reply 44 of 98
    sipsip Posts: 210member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steve-J View Post


    How about all the phones running Android vs. all the phones running iOS? Is that a fair comparison?



    The Wall Street Journal seems to think so:



    "According to market research firm NPD Group, devices with the Android operating system accounted for 44% of new smartphones sold to U.S. consumers in the third quarter. Apple iPhone’s came in second place with 23%."



    Yeah, that's because for months Android devices have been on two-for-one offers. They can't sell them so they give them away, so you should maybe halve that 44% to 22%.



    BTW, I'm running Navigon on my (jailbroken) iPad using an app called FullForce and SatNav on the 9.7" screen is just so awesome and magical that I'll probably never use Navigon on the iPhone again.
  • Reply 45 of 98
    steve-jsteve-j Posts: 320member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    But that's the US only, current and prior iPhone only (no iPads, iPod Touches) against all devices running Android.





    .



    Yes. The various iOS phones vs the various Android phones.



    Or were other Android devices included? What other Android devices other than phones? I thought the comparison was between the iOS phones and the Android phones.
  • Reply 46 of 98
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gescom View Post


    Google's Android platform has taken the lead in the US smartphone market. Finally.



    Funny, that wasn't on any of the graphs. Maybe you ought to actually spend a little reading time there before you fingers make claims your eyes can't agree with.
  • Reply 47 of 98
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steve-J View Post


    Yes. The various iOS phones vs the various Android phones.



    Or were other Android devices included? What other Android devices other than phones? I thought the comparison was between the iOS phones and the Android phones.



    The comparison is iOS developers vs Android developers. Only for some reason, well not some reason, just as a way to skew the graphs, iOS was split into two portions while Android was left as one.



    Since the graphs weren't about phone or device vs phone or device, but only app developers on OS platform A vs app developer on OS B, it was a really self serving and misguided set of choices in how to present them.
  • Reply 48 of 98
    hirohiro Posts: 2,663member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steve-J View Post


    Apparently, you don'[t know an average cross-section of phone buyers. The fact is that Android phones outsell the iPhone.



    I have yet to see any actual sales data on this. Only analysts making projections based on extrapolating Google reports of Android activations. And even with that the math doesn't work. Because Google is reporting fewer activations than Apple is.
  • Reply 49 of 98
    wovelwovel Posts: 956member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macinthe408 View Post


    I work and live in Silicon Valley and I see about 20 iPhones for every Android phone.



    At work, I don't know anyone who has an Android phone, yet I counted 37 that have an iPhone.



    I attend San Jose Sharks hockey games--I am a season ticket holder, in fact. While in my seat, during a stoppage in play and intermissions, people usually whip out their phones--I know because I can look down and over their shoulders. Again, I see about 20 iPhones, a Symbian phone here and there, and the occasional RAZR.



    Am I missing something here? Who has an Android phone?



    There is not really any reason for anyone to pull out their Android phone, so you never see them. I am by the way totally serious. Compare features etc, but the user experience on Android simply sucks when compared to iOS. People use their iPhones for more, and buy more apps, because it is better.



    Android has more market share because it is made by lots of manufacturers, on lots of carriers and is quite often given away...
  • Reply 50 of 98
    wovelwovel Posts: 956member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by gescom View Post


    Google's Android platform has taken the lead in the US smartphone market. Finally.



    I could dump a few billion dollars down the toilet and take over the US Smartphone market tomorrow (if I had the money). Who really cares?



    - The profits for most of the companies (maybe all) making Android handsets are abysmal.

    - Say what you want about App store developers making money, no one at all is making anything in the Android market.



    Android could have 10x the market share of iOS and it would still be a loser for manufactures and developers alike. I won't say Android is irrelevant, but it is no more relevant than the crap Nokia makes, the crap Microsoft makes and the crap RIM makes.
  • Reply 51 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cbswe View Post


    not really. the iPad is capable of running iPhone apps in a similar manner to how OS X used to run OS Classic apps.



    Um, no. It is NOTHING like that AT ALL.



    The iPad runs iPhone/iPod Touch apps entirely natively. The only part of running the app that's not the same is if the user chooses to pixel-double the UI, which the UI layer of the iPad does the conversion between double-size pixels and regular pixels.



    Classic was a virtual machine that enabled a new operating system to execute an older, entirely different, written for a different type of CPU, operating system, which then ran 'classic' applications.



    There is nothing remotely similar between the two things.
  • Reply 52 of 98
    I just love statistics. You can throw the data (skewed) in a nice pie chart and say anything you want. I don't have a doubt that Android will command the market share. But, the money for developers is still going to be on iOS.
  • Reply 53 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wovel View Post


    There is not really any reason for anyone to pull out their Android phone, so you never see them. I am by the way totally serious. Compare features etc, but the user experience on Android simply sucks when compared to iOS. People use their iPhones for more, and buy more apps, because it is better.



    Android has more market share because it is made by lots of manufacturers, on lots of carriers and is quite often given away...



    That's all and well, but your opinion in the end. Android may be lacking in the polish of iOS, but it hardly "sucks". The latest phones are very smooth and the functions well integrated. Bugs in the OS and apps are becoming less and less with each iteration.



    I can only speak for my experience, but in the area I live in (CT), I see more and more people walking around with Android phones of all types. o one's ashamed to be seen using an Android phone. My roommate's bank recently took a poll of phone types to determine whether they should develop an Android app. The results were nearly 2:1 in favor of Android. Take it for what it's worth.



    I use my DX for just as much, if not more than an iPhone user. I have access to many types of similar apps and my phone has many similar native abilities. And with the ability to not be limited to apps from an approved store, I can load beta apps from innovative developers to add more potential to my phone (with potential risks).



    As for your comment about marketshare, it's only 1/2 the equation. Many companies can create Android phones and carriers can give promotions to give them away, but if the masses don't know about them or don't like them, they won't sell. Clearly, people are buying Android phones because they find something they like in them. I point to Palm's webOS phones as an example of a phone that the masses haven't caught onto.
  • Reply 54 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wovel View Post


    - The profits for most of the companies (maybe all) making Android handsets are abysmal.



    I'm sorry, but you have to be realistic here. OEMs like Motorola and HTC are making millions in profit. Hell, it saved Motorola's mobile phone division and put HTC on the map as its own brand.



    Quote:

    - Say what you want about App store developers making money, no one at all is making anything in the Android market.



    That's true a year ago. But recently, more and more developers are finding their stride with the Market. Some reporting fairly sizable earnings. I'll leave you to Google them out.



    Quote:

    Android could have 10x the market share of iOS and it would still be a loser for manufactures and developers alike. I won't say Android is irrelevant, but it is no more relevant than the crap Nokia makes, the crap Microsoft makes and the crap RIM makes.



    More and more developers are recognizing the importance of Android to the future and consider developing apps to support it as crucial. Combined with an app for iOS where they can make the bulk of their earnings, I don't see a problem.



    Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to paint a field of daisies for Android. It's got a while to go to catch up to the potential of the iOS ecosystem. But it's doing just that and very quickly it seems.
  • Reply 55 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cbswe View Post


    not really. the iPad is capable of running iPhone apps in a similar manner to how OS X used to run OS Classic apps.



    Wow. So Rosetta was just pixel-doubling? Amazing, I never knew that!



    C'mon, you can do better than that. iOS on the iPad is a superset of iOS on the iPhone (or you can view both as subsets of a theoretical iOS that has a core set of features supported by all devices (iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads) and subsets that support specific platforms.



    Either way, there's no emulation going on-- this is absolutely nothing like OS X supporting PPC apps.



    The chart is intentionally misleading. "Android" is an operating system, like iOS. It runs on various specific hardware implementations-- phones with different form factors, and some tablets and tablet-like devices as well.



    "iPhone" and "iPad" are specific devices, both of which run iOS. There are no differences between the implementation of 4.1 on the iPhone or iPod Touch and the implementation of 3.2 on the iPad that are more significant than the differences between various phones with varying hardware features and varying versions of Android.



    Separating the iOS devices by hardware, while aggregating all the Android devices under the OS either was lazy and ignorant, or done intentionally in order to make it seem as if something dramatic is happening-- that developers are flocking to Android in the place of iOS-- something which is not happening. Android is beoming more popular, yes. iOS is not becoming less popular, and Android's increasing popularity is not happening at the expense of iOS' popularity, nor is the iPad becoming less interesting or attractive to developers.



    If the chart had properly aggregated iOS devices, or separated Android devices, there would have been nothing noteworthy about it at all, as it would have shown what most people already think: that iOS is really popular, and that Android is still a bit smaller but growing. Altering the presentation in this way makes it seem as if something more dramatic is happening, when it really isn't.
  • Reply 56 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AsianBob View Post


    I'm sorry, but you have to be realistic here. OEMs like Motorola and HTC are making millions in profit. Hell, it saved Motorola's mobile phone division and put HTC on the map as its own brand.



    False. HTC had an established brand and was very popular in many markets when it was making Windows handsets. It may have helped improve the brand's image in the US market, but worldwide it was already doing pretty well even before Android.



    As for Motorola... that may well be a fair appraisal.



    That's not to take away anything from Android-- it's a great platform, and I'd definitely prefer the HTC handsets that run Android over Windows ones.
  • Reply 57 of 98
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Narcogen View Post


    Wow. So Rosetta was just pixel-doubling? Amazing, I never knew that!



    C'mon, you can do better than that. iOS on the iPad is a superset of iOS on the iPhone (or you can view both as subsets of a theoretical iOS that has a core set of features supported by all devices (iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads) and subsets that support specific platforms.



    Either way, there's no emulation going on-- this is absolutely nothing like OS X supporting PPC apps.



    The chart is intentionally misleading. "Android" is an operating system, like iOS. It runs on various specific hardware implementations-- phones with different form factors, and some tablets and tablet-like devices as well.



    "iPhone" and "iPad" are specific devices, both of which run iOS. There are no differences between the implementation of 4.1 on the iPhone or iPod Touch and the implementation of 3.2 on the iPad that are more significant than the differences between various phones with varying hardware features and varying versions of Android.



    Separating the iOS devices by hardware, while aggregating all the Android devices under the OS either was lazy and ignorant, or done intentionally in order to make it seem as if something dramatic is happening-- that developers are flocking to Android in the place of iOS-- something which is not happening. Android is beoming more popular, yes. iOS is not becoming less popular, and Android's increasing popularity is not happening at the expense of iOS' popularity, nor is the iPad becoming less interesting or attractive to developers.



    If the chart had properly aggregated iOS devices, or separated Android devices, there would have been nothing noteworthy about it at all, as it would have shown what most people already think: that iOS is really popular, and that Android is still a bit smaller but growing. Altering the presentation in this way makes it seem as if something more dramatic is happening, when it really isn't.



    Yup. Exactly my first thought.

    But honestly, some people post such patent stupidity, it seems a wast of time to respond. Kudos to you though for bringing some reason to the uninformed.
  • Reply 58 of 98
    I agree with a number of the prior comments. If we are comparing Android, it should be with respect to iOS, and there wouild be no contest. at this stage of the game.



    On the other hand, the iPad, while an iOS device deserves a different category. However, if it is to be in a separate category, it should not be compared with Android phones but with other so-called tablets, or other wannabees, many of them still to come very soon, soon or next year?. Again, no contest.



    Apps per unit Device



    Now, if the iPad is to be compared with the entire Androids, mostly phones currently, the basis of comparison must be the rate of Apps available relative to the inception. Obviously, when the Androids came out, how many Apps did they have? How long have Android phones been around, and it is still has only about 100K apps -- many of them free(???) -- considering the fact that there are more Android phones combined compared to the iPhone with more than 300K apps.



    Per unit device therefore, the iPhone would trump the collective Android phones even further relative to the Apps for each mobile OS.



    Rate of Apps creation



    Considering that the iPad was just more than 6 months, if I am not mistaken, there were already more than 30K iPad-specific Apps If my memory serves me, the Androids had about 5-10K Apps during the first year? Using this parameter, the iPad trumps the collective Androids not only in terms of Rate of Apps creation, but right now, the Apps per unit device. In fact, if the iOS Apps that would be compatible for the iPad are included, albeit not in their optimal state, the iPad even at its early stage is already several rounds ahead of the collective Android devices.



    Advantage to the Developers



    I did not bookmark one study, but if memory serves, most Android Apps are free and had to depend on Ads to generate revenue. I doubt that Google would be providing a sharing of 70-30 sharing in favor of the developer for the ad revenues generated through the ads. One Android developer in fact stated that such ad-supported App generated a dollar a day -- and supposedly that was even an exception.



    While the focus now are games, with respect to paid Apps, the size of the iPad being comparable to laptops make them suitable for many specialty Apps. One such applications would be in the Apps being developed for the handicapped, some of them cost US$20-200. The specialized Apps fo uses in healthcare could even be higher. Even several hundreds, or a few thousands sale would be quite significant.



    imagine a well-written Apps that could potentially sell tens of thousands.



    Templates for Apps Creation




    The area of template for Apps creation may even be more promising that would be useful for Apps creators who do not have the technical expertise is very promising. One such venture is providing such Apps for writers (books) and magazines, starting at $600, and up with more features (forum, comments, etc.). The focus is the iPad primarily because of its size being most suited for viewing online books, magazines, newspapers. On top of this, the template was designed also for on-demand print publication. In effect, each writer can become his(her) own publisher. either of books, magazines, newspapers, etc,
  • Reply 59 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macinthe408 View Post


    I work and live in Silicon Valley and I see about 20 iPhones for every Android phone.



    At work, I don't know anyone who has an Android phone, yet I counted 37 that have an iPhone.



    I attend San Jose Sharks hockey games--I am a season ticket holder, in fact. While in my seat, during a stoppage in play and intermissions, people usually whip out their phones--I know because I can look down and over their shoulders. Again, I see about 20 iPhones, a Symbian phone here and there, and the occasional RAZR.



    Am I missing something here? Who has an Android phone?



    Or maybe you dont know what an android phone looks like.
  • Reply 60 of 98
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Narcogen View Post


    False. HTC had an established brand and was very popular in many markets when it was making Windows handsets. It may have helped improve the brand's image in the US market, but worldwide it was already doing pretty well even before Android.



    As for Motorola... that may well be a fair appraisal.



    That's not to take away anything from Android-- it's a great platform, and I'd definitely prefer the HTC handsets that run Android over Windows ones.



    I should have been a bit more specific, but what you say is correct. What I was thinking is that before Android, HTC built devices under contract for other bigger names. Like the Palm Treo and the iPAQ Pocket PCs. You never knew these as the "HTC [model]". Just the Palm Treo [model] or iPAQ [model]. Looking back into its history, it was the WinMo handsets where HTC started to actively use its own name. It seems to me Android was where HTC finally started to actively market its own name.
Sign In or Register to comment.