Its all news news news this week. I've started seeing iPhone 4s 'in the wild'. Over the weekend the owners were especially evident. Out on the tube on Saturday afternoon they could be spotted a mile off after queuing for hours, just look for the the dishevelled, smug looking guy with a posh paper bag. Legend has it, that the O2 store was even giving out bags saying 'iPhone 4 - I've got mine' - though to be honest, they may as well have written 'mug me now' on them. For the stat monkeys among us, they've sold 1.7m since launch.
Meanwhile, Google are trying their best to shout over the rabble that Apple has created. CEO Eric Schmidt claiming that Android Applications now number over 65000, up over 15000 - just this month. Brilliant news for the end user, and in line with the every increasing number of Android Handsets being sold. I make no secret of being a big fan of Google and Android, and their more open applications framework. However, what is concerning is a recent report by Larva Labs - a mobile app developer on the amount of revenue being raised on Androids market. At the risk of recycling statistics from this article, it Apple has paid out $1 billion to app developers since its launch, whereas Google has paid out a comparatively paltry $20 million.
From a personal point of view, I believe a lot of this has to do with the simple yet intelligent synchronisation of your iTunes account with the App store. It seems that buying apps from Android market place is just a tad more hassle to the average user - who, chances are, might already have a iTunes account. Equally, it may also be down to the sheer numbers of free Apps available on the Android marketplace. For the purpose of this article I had a look around to test if the marketplace had remembered my credit card details since the last time I purchased an app. The biggest problem I faced was actually finding a paid for app anywhere near the top of the 'most popular' lists. I can understand the average users mentality. Firstly, its sometimes hard to justify the investment in something you may only use for 5 minutes on the way to work (though Android does have a brilliant 24 uninstall and refund policy). Additionally, when you can get a similar app for free, why bother. Ultimately we will have to ask the question: will a lack of app sales eventually put developers off creating software for the platform?
I suppose this makes advertising revenue even more important, as we may well find it being the one thing propping the Androids application industry up.
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