If you’re a beginning developer struggling to choose a mobile platform, your wallet may steer you toward Apple and iOS.
According to venture capital group Andreesen Horowitz’s Benedict Evans, there may be more Android users around the world, but the real money is still on iOS.
At Google I/O, the company’s developer conference, SVP of Android Sundar Pichai announced that Android had more than a billion monthly active users around the world, a huge milestone, especially compared to Apple and its 470 million iOS users as of March 2014.
Its Android One initiative is gearing up to get more Android devices to lower-income consumers worldwide.
Google also reported how much its developers make thanks to Android. It paid $5 billion to developers over the last 12 months, more than double the $2 billion it paid to developers the year previous.
But in regard to that metric, Apple is trouncing Android. According to Evans, “Apple told us that it paid out $7bn in calendar year 2013 – given the growth trend, it probably paid $10bn in the last 12m.â€
Evans brings up a few reasons this could be happening. On average, Android phones are much cheaper than iPhones, attracting a different user base that could be more fiscally conscious.
Android devices are also more popular in lower-income countries where users could lack credit cards. “Finally, this can become circular: if developers believe that Android users do not pay, then their behavior will be affected – they may offer a free ad-supported app instead of a paid app, or have a lower price,†said Evans. “And if they decide not to support Android or support it second, then their users will gravitate to iPhone first, which becomes self-fulfilling.â€