Why You Should Start Developing for the Android

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Why You Should Start Developing for the Android

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Apple's iPhone may be the king of the mobile apps market today, but there is certainly a competitor coming very closely behind, and it's Google's Android operating system. The Android kicked off quite slowly, but it is catching up quite fast. It would appear that most people are using the iPhone but according to Nielsen, more and more people are actually purchasing Android units than iPhone ones.

In the US, estimates show that 40 percent of smartphone buyers in the US bought Android-based units during the last six months, whereas 26.9 percent of buyers still went with the iPhone and 19.2 percent with RIM's Blackberry phones. This may be attributed to the fact that Android is being adopted by most smartphone manufacturers, with the notable exception of Nokia, which announced that they are going to use the Windows Phone 7.

Overall, the iPhone still has the lead over the Android in the overall consumer market, with 28.6 percent opposed to 25.8 percent. This difference is bound to get smaller and smaller and, yet, the number of apps in their respective app markets are still large. Mobile security firm Lookout reports that there are over 300K apps for the Apple App Store compared to the Android Market's 100K or so apps as of February 2011.

What does this tell us? With nearly the same number of units sold for Android-based phones and the iPhone but with a large difference in apps available, this only means that there is still a lot of room for growth for Android app developers. Only 34 percent of Android apps are paid since last August, but this is changing rapidly. You can actually make your app stand out more easily in a smaller market such as Android's.

However, there are still some issues that Android app developers face. Most famously, the rapid updates of the Android OS is a double-edged sword. It is a benefit because bugs are easily resolved and it allows for abundant customization. However, app development is difficult because you have to catch up with all the differences in Android versions and make sure that your apps are runnable on most of them. This fragmentation has not been addressed yet.

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Tags: • customization • reports • markets • blackberry • rims • smartphone • iphone • android • app development • android app • windows phone • operating system •

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