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iOS Tops Android For Number of New App Projects From Developers
Analytics firm Flurry recently posted a report comparing the new projects being undertaken by developers for mobile apps on Android and iOS. According to their data, significantly more projects are started for iOS than for Android. The gap has been slowly shrinking over the past few quarters, but it's still bigger than it was a year ago. "For every 10 apps that developers build, roughly 7 are for iOS. While Google made some gains in Q1 2012, edging up to over 30% for the first time in a year, we believe this is largely due to seasonality, as Apple traditionally experiences a spike in developer support leading up to the holiday season." The iPad's dominance of the tablet market is one of several reasons for the gap. "In Flurry’s estimation, the fragmentation of the Android platform is increasing the cost and complexity of app development, perhaps curbing third-party investment in software."
Probably because it's another cherry-picked statistic to support the previously-determined answer they want. Who cares about "projects started" as a metric? How many of those projects are going to even be completed? The reason they picked such a meaningless metric is because it supported the view they wanted to present. I wish /. would stop with these stories. I think it's obvious by now that both Android and iOS are feasible mobile platforms, we don't need fanboys from either side posting their stat-of-the-day that demonstrates that their choice is the best.
BTW, in the interests of full disclosure, I love my Nexus S and tend to be "on Google's side".
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
There's a huge number of apps for both platforms, way beyond what any individual could possibly use. It's time journos grew up moved from a "size" contest to a "quality" contest: it's not about who has the most apps anymore, but about who has the best amongst the 20 that real people actually use (mail, web, maps, FB, twitter, ebooks, video, music, office...). Too bad that's soooo much harder to do articles on: it requires research, tests, hands-on experience....
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.