The famous company Flurry, which, among other things, analyzes the way in which mobile terminals are used, claims that currently 69% of new application projects are made for the iOS platform. Looking at the graph above, you notice that compared to the same period last year, we have 2 times more projects for applications and the difference between iOS and Android OS has increased. Last year, 63% of the projects were made for the iOS platform and 37% were made for Android OS, the difference increasing in favor of iOS and returning to slightly more normal values this year.
The chart above shows that Apple continues to garner more support from developers. For every 10 apps that developers build, roughly 7 are for iOS. While Google made some gains in Q1 2012, edging up to over 30% for the first time in a year, we believe this is largely due to seasonality, as Apple traditionally experiences a spike in developer support leading up to the holiday season. Apple's business has more observable seasonality.
Practically 7 out of 10 application projects start on the iOS platform and the choice of developers could be based on the fact that through iDevices you earn 4 times more money than through Android terminals. Of course, the money won is not the only problem because the fragmentation of Android is just as important. Developers take into account the price of developing an application for dozens of mobile terminal models and often give up Android OS in favor of iOS from the start only because of this argument.
Opposite to the efficiency Apple offers developers through their homogenous device base, Android fragmentation appears to be increasing, driving up complexity and cost for developers. Furthermore, this fragmentation is concentrated primarily in just smartphones, as there is no serious Android tablet contender to the iPad. For Android, Flurry observes fragmentation along two significant vectors, devices and firmware. Let's look at device fragmentation first.
In the end, iOS remains much more attractive for developers and if Google doesn't solve the fragmentation problem, then things won't change very soon.
