Android News
Android and iPhone development levels follow mirror paths
February 12, 2010 | by Andrew Kameka
Android News
Android and iPhone are competitors locked in a mirror image when it comes to app development. As one rises, the other falls; as one falls, the other rises, according to data reported by Flurry Analytics.
Charting the course of new apps registered with Flurry, the analytics firm found that apps on Android and iPhone have an inverse relationship. While the company points out that Android apps had steady growth in 2009, in comparison to iPhone, there’s a noticeable decrease in new Android apps whenever iPhone apps surge. There’s also a noticeable uptick in new Android apps when iPhone development falls.
The up and down levels are likely because of the launch of new devices. The level of Android apps jumped in December, likely because of the Droid launch and ADC2. Meanwhile, that level decreased in January while the level of iPhone apps jumped significantly in the run-up to the iPad announcement.
It’s important to reiterate that there’s an overall growth of Android apps. However, the chart indicates that there’s a definite link between that growth rate and the iPhone. It has been suggested in the past that limited resources force small companies and independent developers to do a cost-benefit analysis of which platforms to support. The Android Developer’s Contest and big ticket items like the Hero, Droid, and Nexus Onehave helped encourage development.
I strongly believe that the iPhone OS will always command more attention from developers, especially if the iPad proves successful, but it’s interesting to see that there are ways to divert attention to Android at times. Let’s hope that the rising number of users switching to Android makes the bottom half of that chart rise.
[Flurry]
While I'd love to see Android's Market get boosted with some more quality apps, it's probably just not going to happen any time soon. Even as we see market share grow for Google's mobile OS, it just won't happen. Why? Because Apple has mind share. They're everywhere, and everyone knows them. When you say Apple to someone, they're going to know what you're talking about, both device wise, and software wise. The same doesn't go for Android. Not yet.
We have to admit that Android surpasses the iPhone as a phone. In this, they aren't even a close competition.
As a media device, the iPhone will always pull ahead.
The graph has "Percent iPhone vs Android" as it's vertical axis. The total is 100%, so of course the two lines would mirror each other, as you can't get a sum more or less than 100%. What they seem to have done is to take the "sum of new android projects", add it to the "sum of new iphone projects", then calculate what percentage of the total each platform has.
Most of the statements in this article are obviously wrong for that reason. It is silly to try to explain that "of course Android goes up when iPhone goes down and what about the iPad". Also words like "never" or "will always command more attention" doesn't belong. (Netscape Navigator will always be the dominant browser!)
Ha ha that graph is nonsense as the previous poster points out. A graph constructed like that will always mirror. The hilarious thing is that you could do this with number of Toyota brake failures against Android Apps and you would also get a mirror pattern. OMG writing Android Apps saves lives!!!
heya! thats sweet! – just one question, can you tell me if it is possible to use iphone 3g software on the new 4g?