New York — With the ongoing online race between tech giants, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc.’s Android operating system has recently dethroned Apple Inc.’s iOS as the most sought-after software platform for application downloads as consumers bought more Android smartphones.
According to a recent survey conducted by ABI Research indicates a big jump in Android Market applications, which has surpassed Apple’s iOS to rank as the market leader in mobile app downloads, and captured a 44 percent worldwide share of mobile app downloads, compared to 31 percent for iOS.
Further, it also stated that there are now 2.4 Android handsets for every iPhone, which means each Android phone is downloading half as many apps as each iPhone, ABI said.
“Android’s open source approach is the main factor for its success,” said Lim Shiyang, a research associate with ABI Research. “Being a free platform has expanded the Android device install base, which in turn has driven growth in the number of third party multi-platform and mobile operator app stores. These conditions alone explain why Android is the new leader in the mobile application market.”
ABI Research also mentioned another aspect that helps explain Android’s mobile app success: Apple’s iPhone shipment growth in the second quarter slowed to 9% from 15% a quarter earlier while Android smartphone shipments climbed 36% in the quarter, up from 20% in the first quarter. Last week, the nation’s second-largest wireless operator–AT&T–revealed that sales of Android-powered gadgets represented half of the 4.8 million smartphones the telecom titan sold in the third quarter as the number of iPhone activations declined.
Despite Android’s flourishing growth, its “app downloads per user still lag behind Apple’s by 2-to-1,” according to Dan Shey, practice director of mobile services with ABI Research.
Moreover, ABI Research also predicted that global app downloads will escalate from 9 billion last year to 29 billion in 2011. “Such astronomical increases are mainly due to the proliferation of smartphones around the globe,” ABI Research said.
According to mobile-research firm Research2Guidance, the Android Market has been going through what it defined as “exponential growth.” In the recently concluded third quarter of this year, the number of active mobile apps in the Market was about 319,000. This is lower than the 460,000 in Apple’s app store, but the firm discovered that, on average, each Android developer has placed more than six apps in the Market since its launch, while iOS developers have only placed an average of four each.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, unleashed Android in 2007 as an open-source platform, empowering any phone maker to utilize it for free and focus on designing hardware rather than software. Android has helped propel Samsung Electronics Co. into the ranks of top smartphone makers and drive a recovery at Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. even as sales of Apple’s iPhone surged.
Furthermore, a key for Apple is whether the best third-party developers continue to write for its platform. ABI said in a statement that: Apple’s distinguished monetization policies lured good developers within its ranks, thus creating a better catalog of apps and customer experience, which is helping to maintain its developer ranks.
On the other hand, Android’s key advantage, the report said, is its open-source approach which has rapidly expanded the installed base and made an attractive target for developers.