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2011 was a fantastic year for Google's operating system, Android. Its smartphone market share has been growing rapidly. Accordingly to Gartner, Android comprised about 53% of the smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2011, followed by 17% with the Symbian operating system and 15% with iOS from Apple. Apple's market share fell 16.6% from a year ago.
TUTORIAL: Economics Basics: Introduction
Apps Market
Looking at these numbers, it's safe to say that Google is currently winning the race for the smartphone market share. That may be bad news for Apple, but they are still very much ahead in the race. Apple leads Android in the apps market, with the Apple Store having 18 billion downloads, while Android has just reached 10 billion downloads in the Android Marketplace. However, Android is certainly catching up, with a growth rate of 1 billion downloads per month. At this pace, it's just a matter of time before the Android Marketplace overtakes the Apple Store in apps downloads.
While there is a lot of buzz surrounding the growth of Android, the Apple Store still beats the Android Marketplace in a very important area – revenues. Even though Google has a huge market share in the apps field, its Android market doesn't make publishers nearly as much money as Apple does. The app developers still choose iOS first for launching any app because they see more profit potential. According to Pipar Jaffray, a U.S. investment banking firm, Android developers earn just 7% of what iOS Apple Store earns for its developers.
In terms of numbers, Apple's App Store has earned about $4.9 billion in gross revenue for paid apps, while the Android Marketplace is estimated to have earned just $330 million in that market. Apple is beating Android in this area, primarily
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