Who reigns supreme in the battle between Google Play and Apple’s IOS App Store? - Guest blog

 If there is one thing that the world really loves in 2014, it is the smartphone. Indeed there a few things it loves more right now, with the rise of both Android and iOS smartphones seemingly unstoppable. This has led to a fierce battle between app platforms Google Play (the Android one that launched in October 2008) and the App Store (the IOS one which started in July of that year), to be the market leader. So which one is winning this war?

The situation is too complex and finely balanced to answer this definitively, although the differences are clear in some respects. If you take a look at market share for example, there is no contest, with 2014 set to see one billion Android smartphones hit the market, against around 700 million iOS smartphones. This hardly means that the game is up for Apple though, as the App Store was never built on market share, but on app quality. This, together with better remuneration, has made the App Store the most appealing option for the best app developers, and has ensured the App Store leads in terms of revenue. Of the $2.2 billion the two platforms brought in together throughout 2013 Q1, $1.48 billion of it came from the App Store (74%). The Android market is growing at a far faster rate than the iOS one, which means its revenues are also increasing, but the App Store remains the most profitable right now.
The big question for Apple is whether it can halt the rise of Android and Google Play, when the latter has a 70% market share, and it will need to ensure that it retains the best and brightest developers to do so. Some industries such as gaming have taken advantage of this platform for their apps, and specifically developed games for particular devices such as sites like iPhonecasino.ca. The fact is though, that sales of smartphones – both Android and iOS – seem set to go on rising over the next few years, so the fight between these two strong platforms will not be ending any time soon.

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