Verizon iPhone, iPad 2 pulling developers away from Android?
updated 06:35 pm EDT, Thu July 14, 2011
Devs lose interest in Android for Q2
The Verizon iPhone and iPad 2 launches may have pushed many developers to refocus their resources on iOS rather than Android, according to numbers collected by Flurry. Developers creating new apps using Flurry Analytics showed a tendency to step away from the Android platform, which represented 36 percent of new project starts in the first quarter of the year before dropping to 28 percent in the second quarter.
As developers showed waning interest in Android, new project starts for iPhone apps rose from 54 percent to 57 percent of Flurry Analytics total numbers for the first and second quarters, respectively. The iPad also showed gains, jumping from 10 percent to 15 percent in the same period.
"Of note, this drop in Android developer support represents the second quarter-over-over slide, which follows a year of significant, steady growth for the Google-built OS," Flurry wrote in a blog post. "Over the course of 2010, Android developer support had climbed steadily each quarter, peaking at 39% in Q4 2010."
Flurry suggests the iPhone launch on Verizon was one of the contributing factors, as Apple's smartphone finally went head-to-head with Android devices on another major carrier in the US. "With the iPhone finally launched on Verizon, the pendulum appears to have swung back more in favor of iPhone over Android development," Flurry opines.
The iPad 2 launch is said to have further tightened Apple's control of the tablet market, providing yet another reason for developers to focus resources on iOS rather than Android.
"With developers pinched on both sides of the revenue and cost equation, Google must tack aggressively at this stage of the race to ensure that Apple doesn’t continue to take its developer-support wind," Flurry says.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2004
Analytics company that doesn't know math
I just lost a lot of respect for Flurry.
Verizon has 1/3rd of the U.S. market, which makes them a tiny fraction of the world market.
In the U.S. prepaid is just 10% of our market. World wide however, prepaid is over 50% - it's the majority of the market.
The biggest gap, is, and has always been, that Apple doesn't compete in prepaid. But since last year - Android does.
That's why Android is activating 550,000 devices per day - more than twice Apple.
Yes, its great that in the U.S. developers are interesting in iOS - I am an Apple fan, and I like that.
But Flurry, you took some math, and then created a fictional analysis around it that had nothing to do with the math.
For that: FAIL