By my calculation, there have been about 130 million Android devices sold to date, and over 200 million iOS devices (including iPads and iPod touches). I haven't found an easy way to get these numbers. Here are my sources:
It looks like iOS still has at least 50% more users than Android.
But none of that matters compared to the one number I find hardest to determine:
How much money is sent to third-party developers on each platform?
Meaning, how much do customers spend on apps, less percentages sent to the app store owners? The consistent feedback I've gotten from all Android and iOS developers is that iOS customers are willing to pay more. (Apple announced they've given $2.5 billion to developers at WWDC. I can't find the corresponding Android number.)
I imagine the number for Android lying significantly lower, because a) it's a lot harder to pay in the Android market and thus b) more apps are ad-supported. But I don't think you can ignore the market share trends in favor of how much money devs get on each platform today. Google is already working to get carrier billing for apps to more countries, so buying apps on android will get easier. Given the huge android userbase, it might soon be very smart to put in the extra effort of programming for Android (especially as you'd be one of the first to do so).
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By my calculation, there have been about 130 million Android devices sold to date, and over 200 million iOS devices (including iPads and iPod touches). I haven't found an easy way to get these numbers. Here are my sources:
* Apple announced the 200m number at WWDC this year http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/06/apple-touts-impressive-ios-nu...
* There have been about 325m smartphones (including iPhones) sold worldwide so far http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1421013
* Android has about 40% market share worldwide http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/09/6820706-andr...
It looks like iOS still has at least 50% more users than Android.
But none of that matters compared to the one number I find hardest to determine:
How much money is sent to third-party developers on each platform?
Meaning, how much do customers spend on apps, less percentages sent to the app store owners? The consistent feedback I've gotten from all Android and iOS developers is that iOS customers are willing to pay more. (Apple announced they've given $2.5 billion to developers at WWDC. I can't find the corresponding Android number.)
I imagine the number for Android lying significantly lower, because a) it's a lot harder to pay in the Android market and thus b) more apps are ad-supported. But I don't think you can ignore the market share trends in favor of how much money devs get on each platform today. Google is already working to get carrier billing for apps to more countries, so buying apps on android will get easier. Given the huge android userbase, it might soon be very smart to put in the extra effort of programming for Android (especially as you'd be one of the first to do so).
A year ago, android app developers have been paid out $21M. Maybe you can extrapolate from that?
http://larvalabs.com/blog/android/android-market-payouts-tot...
SO that's about $20 per iPhone that people spend on apps.