Android vs. iPhone App Markets

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This is not a "LOL iPhone is better" or "PWNED! Android has more marketshare" type thread. Please don't let it get that way.

I'm curious what everyone thinks of the current app market on these platforms.

With the recent reports showing Android devices are gaining considerable marketshare, it seems like they would be the main focus of developers, as that is going to be where a majority of potential customers would be....but:
Apple:
~225,000 apps, ~5 billion downloads, ~$1,000,000,000 in revenue to developers
Android:
~100,000 apps, ~1 billion downloads, ~$20,000,000 in revenue to developers​
...so more than double the applications available, about five times the downloads, and fifty times the revenue to developers on the App Store. Those numbers are insane.

What's causing this massive divide? Is the fragmentation issue (both in hardware and software) on Android really that bad? Are people buying iPhone's just generally more apt to not just downloading more apps, but paying for substantially more as well? I know that Android has substantially more free apps available, but even the number of downloads is so far skewed one way that you couldn't say that Android users are just sticking to more free apps, and that's why the revenue's are so low.

I'd love to figure it out with you all, as it seems pretty clear that Android is going to be the dominant mobile phone OS in the foreseeable future (if it isn't already) and I'm curious if we're going to see this trend flip on it's head anytime soon, or at all.

Again, please don't make this a thread to flame either side, I'm trying to make sense of the data in front of me, as it seems pretty counter-intuitive.
 
RubxQub said:
This is not a "LOL iPhone is better" or "PWNED! Android has more marketshare" type thread. Please don't let it get that way.
Click to expand...

bwahahaha

Anywhoo, I'd wager that the quality and lack of games between the marketplaces has something to do with the massive divide.
 
As the Android grows with popularity I'd love to start making apps for it, but the market, as seen in the OP is complete shit. Almost everything is either free or pirated. Hopefully Google takes more steps to improve their app store.

Regardless, I'll probably get an Android phone (in addition to the iPhone) next year and start tinkering with development.
 
I don't like to use my phone for stupid games or anything, I rarely search the market for junk, also alot of android apps are duplicates of others, there are about a hundred different flashlight apps for example.
 
Lirlond said:
I don't like to use my phone for stupid games or anything, I rarely search the market for junk, also alot of android apps are duplicates of others, there are about a hundred different flashlight apps for example.
Click to expand...
All for $1.99

Market does seem less appealing, but the App Store wasn't much better a few years ago. Of course the emulators and what not are a neat touch and remove the need for me personally to download "timewasters" (Chaos Rings was the only iPhone game that wasn't for me).
 
Droid owner here. The Market is an unorganized mess of soundboards, photo galleries, and slide puzzles. Sure, there is some great stuff, but it's just hard to find. The last game I bought was Backbreaker. I ilke it a lot, but I would have never known of it's existence had I relied solely on the Market App to inform me of it.

I don't know if it exists, but google needs to have a QC process like Apples, but make it optional. That way I can go the 'Ceritifed' section if I want to look for quality stuff, or head to the 'Rest of the Crap' if that's what I'm looking for.
 
The Android Market is probably the biggest letdown of Android to me. I have a few other complaints about Android, but the Market, well, blows.

(I'm a developer and I tried to develop for Android, so I'm a bit bitter/biased)

First of all, Android users expect everything for free. Only a few apps are deemed worth of purchasing. Oh, and my free app that I released constantly got 1 star reviews and negative comments due to users not reading the instructions which I placed on the Market description and in the app. I've since pulled the app out of frustration.

Also, the Market is FILLED with spam apps. Try searching 'wallpaper' and see how many apps show up for half naked ladies from the same developer.

Searching, featured, etc all suck on the Market. Impossible to find anything. Froyo added a few 'where were these before' features, such as 'Update All' and 'Did you mean', but shit, those should have been there from the start.

I haven't used the App Store much. I'm recently switching from a Droid to an iPhone 4, so we'll see.
 
I have had a gen 1 iPod Touch for 3 years now or so, and I recently purchased a Droid X.

My thoughts are that the marketplaces are becoming increasingly similar, but Android still has a bit of catching up to do.

Apple's Marketplace still has by far the best games and the big name companies. As for other apps, you can find decent equivalents on Android for anything but games it seems.

The Android Marketplace is evolving at an outstanding pace though, one of my co-workers got the first Android phone and he could literally browse the entire marketplace on one screen. :lol

I really hope game makers start utilizing Android though, I want Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies and Fieldrunners on my Droid X.

EDIT: As Sn1pes said, there also needs to be more control by Google on what can be posted, those wallpaper apps are getting out of hand.
 
The distinction has to be made between Android Market devices and iTunes App Store devices. The iPod Touch and iPad are also part of the iTunes App Store ecosystem, adding more sales, while many Android devices are not Android Market devices, like the oPhone Android branch being used by the largest Chinese carrier, which does not allow the use of Android Market and has its own App store (having less than 1000 apps, I believe).
 
Freyjadour said:
All for $1.99

Market does seem less appealing, but the App Store wasn't much better a few years ago. Of course the emulators and what not are a neat touch and remove the need for me personally to download "timewasters" (Chaos Rings was the only iPhone game that wasn't for me).
Click to expand...

Not even a few years ago (since it wasn't out). I think a year and a bit was when things started ramping up in the app store.
 
I bought an iPhone 3GS last summer, kept it for eight months, and ditched it six months ago for an Android phone. I've used both markets extensively and think they each have their pros and cons, but one of the things that sort of irks me about these comparisons is the number of apps available for each. I won't guess at a percentage, but the majority of the apps available for either platform are shit. As for total number of apps downloaded, I can only assume those figures for Apple include iPod Touches and iPads, which skews things if we're strictly considering these examples from a "mobile phone OS" standpoint as you indicated in the OP.

The long and the short of it seems to me to be that Apple has had the first mover advantage. They've got a great platform and Android still has a long way to go to try and catch them. If the platform keeps making inroads the way it has been, I suspect they'll eventually catch up. I also suspect that, one of these days, Google will start putting some sort of restrictions on apps in their market (which, of course, won't stop people from releasing apps via other channels).
 
It has little to do with the size or reach and everything to do with how Apple chose to monetize the market, in which they've obviously done a better job than Google. Whether or not this is just a function of the amount of time each store has been in existence is up for debate. At the current time, I'd hardly blame a dev for preferring the app store, nine times out of ten.

As a user, on the other hand, I'm used to skimming through oceans of info so while it's worth acknowledging that the market is cluttered, I've had little to no issues finding what I need. The version segmentation restricts the availability that I have, which is obviously annoying as someone stuck on 1.5. However, I've never had an issue with not being able to find something specific that I know is available for the android version.

And I'll echo the sentiment that the raw numbers of applications for both stores are about as worthless a metric as they come.
 
Having been in the Android scene for just a year now, I can honestly say that the increase in the number (and quality) of apps has been incredible. iPhone AppStore was there first and you rarely find apps which are first released to the Android and then ported to iPhone so it's pretty clear people feel safer on the iPhone. On the other hand, apps which are developed for Android tend to stay on the platform. Games and stuff which require some decent graphical power are also better developed for the iPhone since you can gauge what performance you'll get.

Furthermore, I don't consider the Android numbers to be anything to go by. From my experience there are way too many shit apps which inflate those numbers. There are shitloads of plugins and 'addons' for other apps and font packs and themes and all that crap as well as 'sexy lingerie model' apps and the like. I'm not at all familiar on what's the AppStore but I don't think such things are approved.

However, apart from games (which I don't play on my phone except for puzzles and the like) there really is nothing missing from the Market. In January hardly any widgets were available and most apps had shoddy interfaces and I can assure you the number was much much lower than the 100k today.

Shrug, I dunno. Not really helping the topic but wanted to put that out there.
 
iPod touches. Kids with those buy so many fucking apps and iPods aren't accounted for in the smartphone market share. iPod touches are a cash cow for apple.
 
I am starting to get involved in iPhone development and as a newbie to Apple's ecosystem I am really digging their tools and documentation. They are making life nice and easy to learn everything. The fact that I have a streamlined process for submitting apps and a single unified store that is installed on practically everyone's computer is really awesome.

I do want to get involved in Android development at some point, but it just seems easier to learn mobile development with Apple's nice tools and ecosystem.
 
OS fragmentation isn't really an issue. Over 60% of handsets are on 2.1 right now according to latest stats, which is pretty impressive really.

I think it just comes down to app maturity. People are more familiar with iOS, and are making more mature, tight apps for it. Certainly hardware and I would say screen size and feature set uniformity is a massive help for the App Store as well. Market is getting more mature in leaps and bounds however, and I would imagine the gap to close even more within a year or two. I think because of standard hardware iOS will always have the advantage in complex games but Android productivity apps (which already imo surpass iOS apps in pure functionality) will look and function as slick as their iOS counterparts.

Bluth said:
iPod touches. Kids with those buy so many fucking apps and iPods aren't accounted for in the smartphone market share. iPod touches are a cash cow for apple.
Click to expand...


this too
 
Vik_Vaughn said:
Droid owner here. The Market is an unorganized mess of soundboards, photo galleries, and slide puzzles. Sure, there is some great stuff, but it's just hard to find. The last game I bought was Backbreaker. I ilke it a lot, but I would have never known of it's existence had I relied solely on the Market App to inform me of it.

I don't know if it exists, but google needs to have a QC process like Apples, but make it optional. That way I can go the 'Ceritifed' section if I want to look for quality stuff, or head to the 'Rest of the Crap' if that's what I'm looking for.
Click to expand...
hmm i just go on gaf for recommendations like with my itouch. it's definitely a sloppier store but i've found lots of good stuff (both free and paid) courtesy gaf. games-wise is the one place where it's not even on the same planet but that's ok
 
McBacon said:
iPhone App Store has a three month lead on Android Marketplace. Not a considerable difference, I'd argue.
Click to expand...

I don't have numbers available, but if you look at the number of devices available that used the service when each launched, there would be FAAAR more iDevices. Overwhelmingly larger install base = little initial reason for developers to spend time on Android apps. As the platform picks up steam, that is obviously starting to change.
 
McBacon said:
iPhone App Store has a three month lead on Android Marketplace. Not a considerable difference, I'd argue.
Click to expand...

To be fair though the first 'decent' Android phone was the HTC Hero in Europe and the Droid in the USA. Those were released last July and November if I'm not mistaken. I got my Hero in August and the market was bare then. Android Market started filling up after 2.0 was released (with the Droid).
 
Well, I have an Android phone, which I love and an iPad, which I also love. That being said, the Android Market is an unmitigated disaster, full of spyware, bloated crapware and an extremely broken search function.

The Apple Store is much better organized, much cleaner and it's easy to find what you're looking for. It's not perfect, not by a long shot, but it outclasses Android's offerings in nearly every way.
 
McBacon said:
iPhone App Store has a three month lead on Android Marketplace. Not a considerable difference, I'd argue.
Click to expand...

The iPhone itself had a longer headstart though

i'm not saying they'd have equal app sales if they'd been at a deadheat all along, but you can't deny the fact that the iOS has had (and still has) a significantly larger (though decreasing as of late, apparently) marketshare

Also.. I'm assuming these figures also include iPad and iPod Touch sales, which would mean that the iOS has a significantly larger marketshare than the android OS

The free vs paid app difference probably (but not totally) comes from the fact that only customers from a handful of countries can currently buy paid apps, and an even smaller portion can distribute them..
 
I hate the Android marketplace. It's so hard to navigate and find anything worthwhile. I only open it up if someone informs me of a specific app worth getting or I have a need for something on the fly. When we were building my friend pool table I grabbed a level app within a minute which was nice.

Not sure how Apple's is as I only have a Droid. Android market just isn't good for casual browsing.
 
both suck - the Apple one just sucks far less than the Android one, which is an unmitigated disaster.
 
Interfectum said:
As the Android grows with popularity I'd love to start making apps for it, but the market, as seen in the OP is complete shit. Almost everything is either free or pirated. Hopefully Google takes more steps to improve their app store.

Regardless, I'll probably get an Android phone (in addition to the iPhone) next year and start tinkering with development.
Click to expand...
This is purely the anecdotal evidence of one user, but I've been more than happy and willing to pay for high quality apps on my Android phone.
 
A BIG problem for android was piracy and lack of devices. This is now being fixed. I expect to see more big names joining in soon.
 
Interesting.

Number of Apps available to Apps Downloaded ratio

iOS - 1:22222.2 recurring
Android - 1:10000

Over twice as many downloads per app on iOS. Of course, the bulk of downloads could be limited to a small number of 'elite' apps, so this is not necessarily indicative of anything... however, as Android is more open as a platform, I would suggest that a lot of things (home customisations, tweaks etc) go undownloaded by the casual user, and that there is also a lot of stuff out there perhaps not worth downloading. Being a self regulating market, if users warn others not to bother downloading, they won't.


Download to revenue ratio

iOS - 1:0.2
Android - 1:0.02

edited:

For each of those downloads approximately $0.20c is generated on iOS and $0.02c on Android...
 
radioheadrule83 said:
Interesting.

Number of Apps available to Apps Downloaded ratio

iOS - 1:22222.2 recurring
Android - 1:10000
Click to expand...
Where are you getting that data from?

The information in the OP is sourced directly from Apple and Google, so I'm not sure where that is coming from.

Edit: I see what you're doing now...but your revenue ratios don't make sense to me. If somehow you math works out, it seems like you're implying that Android apps make just as much money as Apple apps on average, which doesn't compute at all with the numbers.
 
RubxQub said:
Where are you getting that data from?

The information in the OP is sourced directly from Apple and Google, so I'm not sure where that is coming from.
Click to expand...

its not hard to work out a ratio between 2 numbers. There is an ios calculator app isn't there? :lol
 
RubxQub said:
Where are you getting that data from?

The information in the OP is sourced directly from Apple and Google, so I'm not sure where that is coming from.
Click to expand...
it looks like he got it from the OP.
 
Also, can anyone with more motivation than myself post pics of the 'same' app for both Android and iPhone. Just to have a general grasp of how the apps differentiate over platforms.

Twitter app on the Android is actually really sleek and with the latest update the FB one is decent too.
 
josephdebono said:
Also, can anyone with more motivation than myself post pics of the 'same' app for both Android and iPhone. Just to have a general grasp of how the apps differentiate over platforms.

Twitter app on the Android is actually really sleek and with the latest update the FB one is decent too.
Click to expand...

I don't have an idevice but i've seen the Bump app.

Bump on android - Sharing apps, music etc

Pump on iOS - Sharing contacts and pictures only.
 
RubxQub said:
Where are you getting that data from?

The information in the OP is sourced directly from Apple and Google, so I'm not sure where that is coming from.
Click to expand...

I assume we are talking American billions.

5,000,000,000 (5 billion) ∕225,000 = 22222.2 recurring
1,000,000,000 (1 billion) ∕100,000 = 10000

My second set of figures were wrong though

Its 1:0.2 for iOS and 1:0.02 for Android
 
As a consumer, I'd just like to say that I could not care less about the total quantity of apps any particular platform has. (and you shouldn't either) It's all about well designed, quality apps that bring high value. That's pretty subjective and probably why the numbers argument will never win, but at the moment it's clear the iOS platform and its developers have made huge strides in establishing the most complete and competent market.

As for why there are so many developers on Apple's platform:

1. Installed base

Android Market: 13 million
App Store: 85 million

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_digital_distribution_platforms_for_mobile_devices

2. Non-free app availability

App Store: 90 countries
Android Market:

tJvh7.png


http://market.android.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138294
 
josephdebono said:
Also, can anyone with more motivation than myself post pics of the 'same' app for both Android and iPhone. Just to have a general grasp of how the apps differentiate over platforms.

Twitter app on the Android is actually really sleek and with the latest update the FB one is decent too.
Click to expand...

Android

500x_facebook-android.jpg


iOS

facebook-ios-4.jpg


WebOS

facebook_update_for_webos_640.jpg
 
Perhaps I should have stated the intentions in the OP better.

I'm not trying to brandish the App Store numbers in everyone's face and say "neener neener", I'm trying to figure out the if/how/when the Android Market is going to take over.

It's clear to me that, barring some major change, the iPhone is going to be outsold by the Android platform substantially in the future...there's just so many handsets available to so many carriers that it's pretty much a given in my mind that this is going to happen.

With such a dominant marketshare, I'd imagine the Android Market should overtake the App Store in all categories (# of apps, # of downloads and total revenue paid). I'm trying to understand what is really getting in the way of that, or if anyone has any trending data that shows that that is currently happening.

I'm much less interested in the "how we got here" and much more interested in the "where we're going".
 
The Android Market is one of the few letdowns I have with my phone. It is an unorganized mess and searching is difficult. Why is there no sort option? That would help quite a bit.

The iPhone market is no doubt better, but Apple has had more time to perfect it. I'm sure the Android market will catch up, but i'll take time.

And as for those complaining that Android users expect apps to be free, think back to when the iPhone came out. There were a lot more free apps. Now people are accustomed to paying for apps. I'm sure the same shift will occur on the Android market as well. Just give it time.
 
where there's a big win for the Android Marketplace - refunds, which should be less of an issue for developers now that they've closed the piracy hole.
 
LM4sure said:
The update just came out the other day. Before that it was garbage. It's finally starting to get a little better.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Its been lagging behind. I'm glad you can send messages in app now. i used to have to use touch.facebook.com
 
McBacon said:
iPhone App Store has a three month lead on Android Marketplace. Not a considerable difference, I'd argue.
Click to expand...


Didn't the Iphone have about 4 million built-in users once it launched?



I own a touch and my wife owns a Droid. I like the Iphone's App's better, but having to use Itunes negates it's benefits. I fucking hate that software.

I think Apple's walled garden approach is going to attract more professional apps. But at the same time, it will be too slow to react to the crush of apps that will get released on the android. It kind of reminds me of the PC days in the 90's. There was A LOT of shareware that was shit ... but every once in awhile, someone created this brilliant software that becomes a must have.
 
i never find anything i want by using the app store on android. THe only way i have ever gotten anything on my phone is by GAF reccomendations and other android based web sites.

The app store itself, as far as being able to browse, etc, is pretty shitty on Android. There is very little you are ever going to find by just looking for yourself. Its one of the few major issues with Android left and needs to be addressed.
 
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