In U.S, Android, with its open platform, appears to have the best chance of mounting a comeback against Apple's platform. “With a wave of 18 more Android handsets shipping in 2009, the chase pack is growing and looking for signs of fatigue from the leader” reports Peter Farago, Vice-president marketing of Flurry.
As it does for iPhone, Flurry tracks developer interest in Android by monitoring "New Project Starts" in its analytics system. “While iPhone new projects have steadily increased by 30% month over month, Android's growth rate is accelerating, increasing by over 50% from June to July alone. Though iPhone still commands the majority of developer interest, Android is beginning to close the gap in an undeniable way” says Farago in its Smartphone Industry Pulse of July 2009 (http://blog.flurry.com/bid/24465/Smartphone-Industry-Pulse-July-2009).
The chart below compares iPhone vs. Android share of new application starts. In total, the percent of new Android applications integrated, relative to iPhone, has more than doubled over the past six months.
Flurry is based in San Francisco and offers analytics, deployment and monetization tools for mobile application developers. The data in this report is computed from a sample size of over 1,600 live applications and 60 million consumers across four platforms: Apple (iPhone and iPod Touch), Google Android, Blackberry, JavaME.
