It seems like you hear it all the time, things like, “Check out our iPhone App, Android version coming soon!” Android seems to always be second place when it comes to companies getting an app out to market. There are reasons, sure, a fragmented marketplace and lack of android developers, but none of those excuses are good enough to justify leaving the top mobile operating system out in the cold when it comes to apps.
The bottom line is that as awesome as iPhones are and as in love with the pretty commercials everyone is, Android has a bigger market share. Translation: If you only have the time to make one app, make an Android app, it will be available to more people. On top of that, there are no complex approval process for the Android Market and you can have your app in people’s hand fast. From a strictly numbers standpoint it makes sense to do Android first, not the iPhone version.
If you are not convinced simply by the larger market and access to more people, here are some potentially surprising statistics about the growth of Android. These are just more good reasons to get Android out of the back of your mind if you’re developing apps and ammunition to send at companies if you are on the other side of things begging for Android apps.
- Android handset sales grew 886% in one year (Q2 2009 to Q2 2010)
- 200,000 Android handsets are being sold daily
- Android Market is growing faster the the App Store, has 100,000 apps
- Android phone sales make up about 32% of all U.S. phone sales
Don’t sleep on Android! The growth the platform has seen is staggering and industry experts point to the open model as the way of the mobile future.
