
The Android operating system now
leads in total app downloads,
another benchmark in the race to
dominate the smartphone market,
according to ABI Research.
The market research firm's
Singapore office said Android
overtook iOS in the second quarter
of this year with 44 percent of
mobile app downloads being
delivered to Android devices,
compared to 31 percent going to iOS
gadgets.
Android has grown much faster
than ABI's earlier projections have
suggested. In 2009, Google's OS
facilitated just 11 percent of total
app downloads. At that time, the
firm projected that figure might
grow to 23 percent by 2014. Instead,
2011 seems to have been the year
that Android made its move on iOS.
As recently as August 2010, ABI
reported that iOS still held a
dominant 52 percent of the market
for mobile app downloads.
"Android's open source strategy is
the main factor for its success," says
Lim Shiyang, an ABI research
associate. "Being a free platform has
expanded the Android device install
base, which in turn has driven
growth in the number of third party
multiplatform and mobile operator
app stores."
According to ABI, Android's install
base now exceeds iOS by a margin
of 2.4 -to-1 worldwide; by 2016 that
will grow to 3-to -1.
Shiyang says the open source factor
alone could be enough to explain
Android's success, but ABI also notes
that growth in iPhone shipments
slowed in the middle of 2011, likely
as consumers decided to wait to buy
a new iPhone until the next model
(which we now know to be the
iPhone 4s) was released. While
Apple growth was slowing, Android
shipments increased 36 percent in
the second quarter.
Of course, the picture for the last
quarter of 2011 could look very
different, thanks to the October
release of the iPhone 4S, which has
already broken sales records . And
Apple users still download more
apps per user than Android by a 2-
to-1 margin, according to the ABI
report.
"Apple's superior monetization
policies attracted good developers
within its ranks, thus creating a
better catalog of apps and customer
experience," says ABI's Dan Shey.
In the end, both Apple and Android
win. ABI expects global app
downloads for 2011 to hit 29 billion
total, a huge increase from 9 billion
downloads in 2010. That's thanks to
a total smartphone install base that's
expected to grow 46 percent this
year.