A recent research study by the mobile analytics firm
Flurry basically reaffirms what we already know, the iPhone dominates all of its competitors, at least from an applications standpoint.
These findings, published by
ReadWriteWeb, indicate that Apple's platform leads all other companies in active developers, applications developed, and consumer usage.
The study shows that 72 percent of smartphone developers are writing for the iPhone. The next closest platform was Google's Android at 22 percent. As for applications actually produced, the iPhone garnered 64 percent of the business while Android and JavaME each only had 16 percent. Flurry's study also reveals that 87 percent of all users are running iPhone apps. The next closest competitor in this category was Android at 7 percent.
We must take into account where this data is coming from. Flurry's data was based on 8 million users and 100 applications. Flurry clearly states that very few of the developers that participate in their studies are BlackBerry developers. This would explain why the BlackBerry platform barely even registered on any of their charts. As to why this is, Flurry's VP of marketing Peter Farago isn't even sure:
"Why haven't [more] BlackBerry developers signed up for analytics?" he asks.
Other data was included in the research study as well. Flurry reveals that the App Store is a hit-driven market, where developers need a solid hit application to ensure future success, just like the music industry. They also claim that marketing is key the key to success.
The final and somewhat surprising statistic reveals that only about 10 percent of users update their applications. This means that all of those quality updates after an application has been released are going unnoticed. This has to be disheartening news to many developers who rely on the release and update method, where applications can be released at near completion and then finished off through a series of updates once the application is placed at the App Store.
Are any of you surprised by these numbers?
