[straight_talk_2]

Interesting - there are hundreds of millions of iOS devices out there and their average user spends more money on apps than the Android counterpart.

Are we already at the point where Apple is irrelevant to the app vendors?

[austinz]

I don't think so, because larger mobile operating system share (especially global, where you have to account for the Chinese and Indian markets) doesn't necessarily mean more people will actually be interested in your app, can find your app, or can run your app on their phones. Your potential market is larger, sure, but out of that larger customer pool how many will be able or willing to download and use your app, especially if it's something performance-intensive?

For a lot of people, the smartphone they buy is already fully functional for their needs out of the box. They get an Internet browser, media player, e-mail client, and some other utility/PDA features that are bundled with the OS. A lot of people will add 'service apps' like Facebook and Dropbox to access services they were already using, and then stop there. There is less of an incentive for people to go out and look for apps to make their smartphone more useful, like a 1990s computer purchaser going out and buying Microsoft Office and Quicken for their new otherwise-useless Windows box, and so I would argue that marketshare by itself is less meaningful a metric for comparing mobile and desktop platforms.

[hatu]

At least for big game companies iOS is still by far the number one platform. Many high profile games still aren't available on Android, Clash of Clans or Plants vs Zombies 2 or Kingdom Rush Frontiers just to name a few I've been missing in the last few months.