The world of apps is the world, where the competition is fierce! The fight between Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS is quite obvious. They are two great platforms, each with a unique strength and have access to a large number of applications. Who will ultimately win the mobile app war?
Google pays Apple millions to make its search engines the default search provider for iOS devices, but Google collects more from ads placed on Apple devices. Apple and iOS only exist to serve the top 15% of the wealthiest segment of the world’s population, while everyone else uses Android. Research shows that Google’s Android enjoyed about 78% of the market share globally. Several research companies show that the market is tilting towards Android. Market share alone is not the only determining factor. Android OS phones are mostly low-end phones and users in that market generally don’t spend much. Apple, on the other hand, works at the high end and is reported to have 800 million credit cards registered with iTunes. That’s a lot of money to grow your iPhone app business.
In the first week of January this year, iOS fans spent around $500 million on iPhone apps and in-app purchases, which is a huge amount. There are some obvious reasons for Apple’s success. Quality control is very important as Apple maintains strict control over the hardware and operating system of the smartphone. Also, Apple spends a lot of money on developers every year. But Google Play’s global downloads are higher than App Store’s, as Android’s consumer base is huge. Google Play has now overtaken Apple’s app store as the number of apps it hosts is greater and so are the number of developers working on the platform.
iOS app users are said to be happier with the app and spend more for free than Android users. There are many stars that make the iOS app a much more attractive market than Android. Developing for Android is a hassle, as the obvious hurdle is the challenge of supporting a variety of devices from different manufacturers, with different hardware specifications and features, and running a different variant of the operating system, even if it’s new.
Both iOS and Android have over a million apps, but both have their pros and cons. In some cases, the Android apps available in the market lack the key features. For example, the TiVo app lets you manage your DVR recordings but doesn’t let you view them. Many argue that Android’s outstanding market share will lead it to become the dominant app platform. The growing popularity of Android has had a positive effect on app downloads. However, iPhone users can be sure to receive future updates at least as soon as anyone else if the iOS mobile app is available on the Apple App Store. But there are exceptions in the case of Android. When an app update arrives, one has to wait for weeks or months before the update is available.
Apple’s key market is the US and Europe, but it is growing its revenue in emerging economies like India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia, but Google’s growth is mainly coming from these countries. Recently, China is becoming a major business hub for Apple as its app download increases every quarter.
Project Titan is Apple’s next big electric car project. Apple would enter the car market in 2020 and Apple sees this car as “the ultimate mobile device”. It is said that Apple will win the app war even though Google may have won the OS battle. Currently, it can be difficult to fully declare that Android is better than iPhone or vice versa, because the battle between the two is still going on!
