Over the past couple of years there has been a lot of talk about what platforms developers should focus on in order to be able to make enough money to live on regularly. Previously a majority of the studies showed that iOS was the way to go when looking to make money off of mobile applications but that has changed. When people talk about developing for Android a lot of people tend to talk about application piracy and that Android users don’t want to pay for apps.
According to a new report by BI Intelligence there is money to be made when it comes to Android and after taking into account advertising, mobile commerce and other fees the gap is very slim. In addition to this the report also comments that Android developers are able to do more to boost monetization then on other platforms.
Some of the key take aways from the report are
- Google has given developers more ways to improve their revenue such as app translation tools.
- Android is running on 76% of mobile devices and 80% of smartphones. In the same way that Windows software defined the PC era, Android now defines mobile computing and eventually that will translate to even more revenue.
- Advertising has emerged as the dominant revenue source for Android developers, and there’s a real opportunity here since ad rates are still lower on Android than iOS.
- The strategy of updating phones through its own software also means the platform can do an end-run around carriers and manufacturers that create their own versions of Android and are slow to push out updates.
Android is growing in a huge way, people are using it as a base platform for a wide variety of devices now a days and there is a ton of potential. Knowing there that is money to be made, and that there is a huge interest it is a win win for developers to start putting their tools to use. It is likely only a matter of time before Android developers are making more than iOS developers, and this is a huge change.
