Is the Mobile World Turning towards Android: iOS vs Android Development Statistics

Annual sales of smartphones have reached almost 1.56 billion units worldwide. Each year, the cost of purchasing a smartphone is decreasing, making it available to everyone, not just those with wealth. The global average price is now hovering at around $215 USD. One explanation for the price drop may be fierce competition in the smartphone industry. Samsung and Apple have historically possessed large shares of global smartphone production, but Chinese brands are now offering alternatives that are proving popular around the world.

How well do you know your target audience? What kinds of applications are they most likely to install? What percentage of users are able to pay for applications and make in-app purchases? The answers to these questions will differ depending on what mobile OS your customers prefer.

Statistical Data on iOS Development vs Android Development Worldwide

You can obtain some valuable information from statistical data by looking at the users’ smartphone choices. iOS users, for example, are more likely to have a higher income than Android users. This data can impact your decisions about the product’s monetization strategy. An iOS app may be the most profitable platform if your monetization strategy highly depends on in-app purchases; however, if you intend to monetize through ad placements, Android may be a better option.

Android has the largest global market share in low-income regions and developing countries due to its broad price range and low entry-level price point. It has a competitive advantage over Apple in developing markets such as Asia and Africa.

With both Android and iOS accounting for over 99 percent of the global mobile market share, companies looking to build an app will have to consider both operating systems, but in most cases, due to project constraints such as time and budget, they will have to choose only one.

Another critical factor is the number of developers building apps for each platform. According to a global app developer report, the majority of mobile software developers were working on Android and iOS in 2020.

However, if we take into consideration the number of applications developed for each of the two operating systems we can see that there are nearly 4.4 million apps available in the Apple App Store and 2.95 million apps in Google Play.

Android vs iPhone Development Comparison Country Wise

If we make a brief overview of how Android and iOS platforms are used continent-wise, we will notice the following tendencies. The biggest amount of programming on Android (over 55% of the total amount of developers) is located in Eastern European countries, South Asia and South America.

As you see, iOS is prevalent in North America and Oceania, while the rest of the world mostly uses Android-based devices.

Another figure to mention is the breakdown of market share by average consumer age. Apple devices are chosen by 70% of 18 to 24-year-olds, while the distribution of operating systems among 55-65-year-olds is nearly even: Android is favored by 49 percent, while iOS is used by 47 percent, and 4 percent use neither of the two.

Before developing a mobile app, it’s useful to know what financial opportunities each operating system provides. According to research by SensorTower, the App Store alone raised $19 billion in the third quarter of 2020, up 31% from the third quarter of 2019.

Google Play Store is keeping up with the competitor – its revenue amounted to $10.3 billion in the third quarter of 2020, up 33.8 percent from the previous quarter.

When it comes to fragmentation, Android is well ahead. There are approximately 2.5 billion Android devices from over ten different brands, and each brand has hundreds of models varying in size. The uptake of new versions of Android is slowing down. According to recent reports, the market share of Android mobile and tablet devices varies greatly:

Apple users, on the other hand, are more likely to update their devices to the latest iOS version: iOS 14 is installed on 70% of Apple smartphones. Over the last year, the number of active iOS devices has surpassed 1.5 billion.

Benefits of Each Platform

As you can see, there’s no clear winner when it comes to comparing whether Android or iOS is a better platform. The majority of iOS and Android mobile app development companies believe that the choice of a platform depends on the audience you want to reach. Let’s look at some of the advantages that Android and iPhone app development provide to business owners:

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