Android Leads In Share, iOS In Revenue

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Here's a recent survey of global smartphone market share that may influence how you allocate your development dollars. Android has 53% of the market, iOS has 28%, RIM has 16% and everyone else is a trace element.

The key question is really how much money can you make on a platform, and this is where iOS wins with 50% f all the revenues. Android has 39%, and RIM shrinks to only 9%.  This is no doubt due to in-app purchasing being baked in on iOS, and the severe hardware/Android version fragmentation. Yes, Android is more open than iOS, but that leads to a much wider array of hardware and Android versions, which makes developing and testing software significantly more difficult.

Of course, the picture is going to change over time. In the near term, we can expect Android and iOS to continue growing at the expense of RIM. Nokia's collaboration with Windows Phone 7 won't really move the needle, if it does at ll, until next year sometime. I expect Android revenue numbers to improve as the effect of integrating in-app purchasing takes hold, and the effects of their store improvements occur. Until Apple makes a serious run at the lower-cost smartphone market (which might happen this year or next), I think Android will continue to outgrow them.