iOS vs. Android

 There's a lot of hullabaloo nowadays between what the platform of the future will be, but, as I mentioned before, I genuinely think it will probably be decided by the app developers. My logic is this- they will develop on whatever platform they prefer, their new apps and functionalities will progress the space and will give the advantage to the preferred platform/ preferred phone. So let's set the stage, what do we know about iOS and Android?

• Android users are more likely to be male than Apple users (73% vs. 57%), but Apple users tend to be slightly older (67% are 44 or younger) than Android users (60% under 34)
• Apple definitely has the edge in terms of app store size, Apple has an app store size of over 300K apps, while the Android app store is only ~200K apps
• In downloads, Apple celebrated their billionth download in April of 2009, whereas Android celebrated their 1 billionth download in July of 2010 
• Apple has the fastest growing app store (20K apps introduced in February 2010) and Android unfortunately is falling behind (2K apps introduced in the same timeframe)
• However, let's factor in when these two competitors began in the market- the iPhone was introduced in July of 2008, and although the first commercially available device was launched in October of 2008 (HTC Dream) it wasn't until the Nexus One was launched as the flagship of the Google/HTC partnership that it became mainstream
• Apple is a lot smarter than Android in terms of free vs. paid apps- 25% are free in Apple, but a whopping 59% are free in Android
• What do users do with their phones? For Apple users, the majority (51%) of the time they are used for games, 15% of the time used for entertainment.Android users tend to be younger, and a lot of their spend is on games as well, although no hard statistics can be found 
• In terms of monetization, Apple is ahead of the game- average price paid is $3.89, whereas Android is only $2.96

So it seems that Apple has a great demographic, young, affluent users, but Android has the NEXT batch of young affluent users. The latest statistic, offered by the IDC/Appcelerator reports show that developer interest has increased in the Android significantly between 2010 and 2011 (almost 10% lift), compared to the incremental lift the iPhone has seen (~3%). In terms of long-term, 54% of app developers say that Android has the best outlook.... Time will tell!

To see the full Distimo report (lots of good stuff) see below:

Distimo CTIA 2010 Presentation

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