Android Apps Now More Downloaded Than Apple Apps

Android mobile apps are now the most downloaded apps, overtaking iOS app downloads. ABI Research found out that in the second quarter of 2011, Android apps had 44% of the market while iOS apps accounted only for 31%. This means that for that time period, more people were downloading Android apps than there were people downloading Apple aps.

But that does not really mean the Android Market is a winner. On a per user basis, the average Apple user downloads twice as many apps as the average Android user.

Because the Android OS is largely open source, it is being used by more and more mobile phone and tablet manufacturers, hence the phenomenal increase in Android devices over the past year. What’s more, Android devices are much more affordable than Apple’s iPhone and iPad. So, in effect there are more people who are Android users, hence the higher downloading numbers.

Mobile apps, no matter what flavor, will continue to be downloaded. ABI Research estimates that for the full year of 2011, there will be a total of 29 billion downloads, more than doubling 2010′s nine billion downloads.

A Temporary Setback

In September, however, mobile downloads dropped to 3.80 million from 4.06 million downloads the month before. This is according to data from Fiksu App Store Competitive Index.

The decrease in the number of installs was due to the fact that a lot of people were waiting out to buy the new iPhone 4S, and that stalled the number of applications being downloaded.

More Developers on Android

Evans Data’s Application Distribution report, on the other hand, says that there are more developers who are doing business on the Android Market than on the Apple App Store.

The researchers interviewed over 400 commercial app developers and 47% revealed that they have distributed their apps on the Android market, compared to only 43% on the Apple App Store.