Despite increases in device share, iOS app development is still three times larger, Flurry said Monday. New app starts on Android had actually declined in ratio from the start of 2011 to the end, shrinking from 37 percent to 27 percent in a fall estimate. iOS development had grown by an equal number of points and was now up to 73 of starts.
In a lower-key move next to its Google Music store launch, Google said it was rolling Google Checkout into Google Wallet. The switch makes the system that handles NFC-based mobile payments the same that handles regular web sales. Android Market, Google+ games, and YouTube movie rentals will all use Wallet, while a Wallet sign-in will work at any third-party store that takes either the new format or Checkout.
Google's Propeller tablet app may be seen as a vehicle for the company's ad platform. A rumor Friday suggested Google would help both publishers and itself profit from articles by inserting AdSense ads into the formatted articles. The purported 9to5 sources added that publishers could charge by the article using Google Checkout to handle payments.
Game developer Noah Bordner in a comparison this weekend had the rare opportunity to compare success both on iOS and Android. He still saw iOS as having a "significantly" larger market since his game Battleheart ($2.99, App Store, Android Market) could sit outside of the top 200 apps on iOS where it had to be in the top 50 on Android just to get 80 percent of the revenue. However, he saw Android as a potential treasure trove for developers simply because its tendency towards poorly made apps led to higher review scores and more frequent reviews that helped exposure.
