There has been a slew of information about mobile market shares hitting the Internet tubes over the last 48 hours due to a report filed by Nielsen. A lot of information can be gleaned from reading between the lines a little bit, so instead of providing you with three posts on various aspects of the report like others have done, we’ve decided to place three pretty interesting things in the post here.
Android seems to be up against the wall a little bit, and there’s some interesting research to back this up. We mentioned the Nielsen report earlier, but really there have been two separate reports highlighting the success of iOS and the stagnation of Android as a platform.
According to both studies, Apple’s iOS devices account for two-thirds of all app downloads, and Android has seen its market share drop for the first time in recent memory. Those are two pretty large differences in the platforms, and it’s probably something that most, us included, would have never guessed would become a reality.
Apple accounts for two thirds of all app downloads
A study by Research2Guidance has pointed out that Apple’s still the king of the hill when it comes to application downloads. According to the study, while Apple’s market share dropped, iOS users still managed to out download all other users at a rate of 2 to 1.
That means that Apple now accounts for two-thirds of all app downloads, despite a decline in market share over the last three years. You can see in the image below that they’re playing off the ratio as a “loss” but given the fact that iOS devices only hold 26 percent of the market currently, it’s pretty obvious that the device is hitting above its weight class.
Android market share flatlining
While we’re on the market share front, the aforementioned Nielsen report has found that Google’s OS dropped in share for the first time since its release to 36 percent, compared to Apple and Blackberry both holding firm at 26 and 23 percent respectively. It seems like everything here is settling in a little bit. It will be interesting to see if a new iPhone or Android device can tip the scales even more in the coming months.
The real loser here is Window Phone 7, who managed to only eat up 1 percent of the total market, putting it on par with Palm OS. Yup, you read that right, Palm OS still holds 1 percent of the market.
Android apps being ported to iOS
This is a little bit unrelated, but on topic nonetheless. An open source project has managed to port Android applications directly to iOS. The project, titled “In The Box,” aims to give developers the tools they need to easily port their existing Android applications to iOS devices, thereby letting them submit their binaries to Apple for approval.
We doubt that we’ll be seeing any of these applications on the App Store any time soon, and we’re still uncertain if Apple would even approve them to begin with at this point. The “In The Box” gang has put together a nifty video showing off how to port a Hello World application to iOS. As yo can see in the video, attached below, the process is currently not for the faint of heart. Hopefully it gets a little bit easier in the near future.
Photo Credit: hector.bruce
