Android to take 58 percent of smartphone apps
Summary: Android will account for over half of the estimated 56 billion smartphone app downloads in 2013, exceeding iOS which will take 33 percent, and mobile developers will adopt Android-first strategy.
More than half, or 58 percent, of the total 56 billion smartphone app downloads expected this year will be Android apps, while Apple iOS will account for 33 percent.
Microsoft's Windows Phone will have a share of slightly less than 4 percent and BlackBerry will see 3 percent, ABI Research said in a statement Monday.
iOS will lead the apps market in tablets, though, accounting for 75 percent of the estimated 14 billion tablet app downloads this year. Android tablet apps will make up 17 percent, excluding those downloaded by Amazon's Kindle Fire. Downloads to Amazon's tablets will take up 4 percent, while Windows-based tablet apps will see 2 percent, the market research firm said.
ABI Research said it expects a growing number of smartphone-focused developers to adopt an Android-first strategy within the year.
ABI Research senior analyst Aapo Markkanen said: "[This means the] most pressing issue for Google is how much of the handset momentum will trickle down to tablets, where Apple is holding the fort remarkably well."
He noted there is an upside to the Android fragmentation issue since Google can actually benefit from Amazon's tablet push. The Kindle Fire will add much "critical code mass" to positioning Android as a platform for tablet apps, he explained.
ABI Research's estimates of smartphone app downloads corroborates with another report by IDC, which stated more smartphones than feature phones will be shipped in 2013 worldwide for the first time. Handset makers would ship about 918.6 million smartphones, making up 50.1 percent of total mobile shipments globally.
IDC attributed the shift largely to emerging economies. It said smartphone demand had been burgeoning in China, Brazil and India, as these economies had grown, creating a larger middle class prepared to buy smartphones.
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.
Talkback
This isn't a surprise
Android is king of Mobile now and iOS will decline while Microsoft ends up second and surpasses iOS.
You jumped in before reading the article, didn't you!
The article explains, inter alia, that 75% of TABLET downloads will be for iPads.
You might also note that the article says nothing about the income that will be generated from any of the downloads, which is one of the more important measures.
Google has certainly not won the MOBILE wars. The most that you could say is that they have won the SMARTPHONE war, though why you feel the need to make such statements is beyond me.
Ah I was wondering that too...
It would be interesting to see this broken down, as well as changing trends. Historically paid apps have come to iOS first, then if they're a success go on to android; by average. What has changed a lot is not so much number of respective devies, rather cash flow generation. Free and free to play apps are now far more profitable due to popularity.
Nah
Re: Android is king of Mobile now
It will
Re: When it comes to Tablets it will pass them.
Now, with Apple and Android busily divvying up the tablet market between them, you think Microsoft has a new chance? Well, guess what: its products are STILL overpriced and underperforming.
Samsung ATIV withdrawn from European market
As has also been mentioned, Windows tablets had at least a 10 year headstart. During that entire period, pitifully Windows tablets were ever sold.
Four Percent???
We heard this 2 years ago.
Revenue is still 5X on iOS than Android and that is all that matters. The Fandroids will still jump up and down and point to analysts after analyst that has been wrong time and time again and say. SEEEE..... NOW IT WILL BE TRUE.
yes yes
http://www.android.com/whatsnew/
Have you seen the apple what's new?
Not for users
There is no denying, android is leading, with a huge advantage on smartphones, and tablets will go the same way.
Apple as a single hardware maker with a limited set of devices is doing an amazing job, better would be extremely hard. I think they will maintain a solid share away from Windows or BlackBerry.
Congrats Google, But Developers Still Weary
Re: It hasn't changed that high profile developers still prefer iOS first
Now they are comfortable and complacent, and less willing to take risks. And so it falls to a new generation of nobodies to take a chance on Android and ride it to the top.
That's a myth
On iOS, you need an entirely different application to take advantage of tablets. Android applications just adapt, and much of that is handled by the OS. So there's actually less real developer fragmentation on Android than iOS.
Microsoft, on the other, had made things just as bad. Phone applications are different releases than tablet applications.
Android to take 58 percent of smartphone apps
yes
Guaranteed to be homeless in a week if they depened on making a living of that turd of an OS.
Can I have
I've 'tested' a good number of legal substances and not one of them has given me the freedom from reality that you experience daily. Come on, share them around. Who knows, it might improve WP sales.