There’s no denying. Apple IPhones are very popular. Every 2nd person seems to have one. So quite rightly when a company, an organisation, an individual, whoever, decide that they want a mobile application (or app as they have now been abbreviated to) they quite rightly decide to make their app for the IPhone.
While it’s unlikely that one make or model of phone is going to overtake Apple’s domination of the market any time soon, I can see it being highly likely that in a year or so from now Google’s Android operating system will have taken the lead on the number of devices it’s installed on.
Google announced this week that Android is now available on 27 models of phone, and this number is only going to grow.
Anyone who has used the Android OS can tell you that it’s as good as the IPhone, and with it’s ability to multi task and less restrictive over what can be installed, it has many advantages over Apples system. What’s stopping it at the moment is the lack of apps compared to the IPhone.
So if you are a developer of mobile apps at the moment, while you may be tempted to develop solely for the IPhone, I’d also seriously consider making an app for Android as well. Because in a years time I personally believe that Apple are going to have a serious competitor on their hands.
I’ve started learning Java with the aim of trying to get my head around making Android appications. Maybe within a year, when I believe my Android prediction to come true, I will be ready to release an app.
Of course I say all this being an Android fanboy. I’m biased. I want to see it do well. If you’re developing a mobile application and you want it to get the highest possible user base then really you should still be developing for Symbian (found on most Nokia phones) who accounted for 50% of the OS’s installed on mobile phones sold in Q2 of 2009, compared to only 12% for the IPhone OS and only 2.8% for Android.
[Update: 17/02/10] Some interesting statistics on this article here. Apparently 60,000 phones a day ship with the Android OS. That’s 21.9 million a year. Apple shipped 8.7 million IPhones in the last quarter, or 34.8 million a year. The gap is closing.
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