New research conducted by Artisan Mobile and released on November 27 has revealed that 77 percent of consumers will make purchases through mobile apps this holiday season. Perhaps even more importantly, 80 percent of consumers now say that they browse and buy products through smartphone and tablet apps.
But, while the app creation process may be daunting for retailers, new data suggests that for developers, the iOS and Android battle is still one sided. As Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster affirmed in PYMNTS.com’s 2012 Year In Review report, Apple’s iOS is the first choice for companies that wanted to reach a critical mass of customers.
“Handset manufacturers can add a lot of their own stuff on top of Android,” Webster explained in a November report. “That’s why Android has such a fragmentation problem, why developers struggle to monetize apps written for the Android platform and why devices operating Android are not interoperable.”
A November 26 report from Business Insider found that iOS brings developers five times more revenue per download than Android. Further, Android is falling short in other categories. Android developers earn just one quarter – 24 cents for every $1 – iOS developers pocket through a crucial revenue stream, in-app purchases, and less than half – $0.43 per $1 for paid downloads and in-app purchases.
Despite these figures however, Business Insider does suggest that Android is now more competitive with iOS than it has in the past. The full report cited a number of statistics that it suggested provide evidence that Android has the potential to narrow its gap with iOS and become more appealing to developers.
For more on Android and its recent gains, here are five facts to help you better understand the Android-iOS monetization gap.
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