New report has developers preferring iOS in 2011, raking in 300 percent more cash

Flurry’s analytics have revealed that developers still have a preference for developing iOS applications over Android applications. Out of 55,000 companies that Flurry has been tracking, and more than 135,000 applications on their network in 2011, 73 percent of developers are working on iOS projects during the 4th quarter of 2011 compared to just 27 percent working on Android.

The reason, according to Flurry:

Over the year, developer support for Android has declined from more than one-third of all new projects, at the beginning of the year, down to roughly one-quarter by the end.  While the market nearly doubled for both platforms, we believe key events changed the proportion of support between these two platforms.  Of particular note, Apple expanded distribution for iOS devices beyond its long-standing exclusive with AT&T to include Verizon in February and Sprint in October.  Further, the highly successful launches of iPad 2 in February and iPhone 4S in October resulted in increased developer support for Apple.  By contrast, Android does not enjoy a truly recognizable flagship device among its army of OEMs supporting the platform.

There are plenty more factors at play here than just developer preferences. One key example of this is the recent news, also from Flurry, that iOS apps bring in 300 percent more revenue than their Android counterparts. If you’re a developer, would you rather develop apps and give them away, or have consumers pay for them? Culturally, based on these findings, iOS users have a higher tendency to pay for apps than their Android counterparts.

While the numbers suggest that Android is now outselling the iPhone on a daily basis, the fact that Apple devices are still raking in the lion’s share of revenue in the mobile market says a lot about the ecosystem that Apple has created for developers, and the marketing power of Apple’s App Store.

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld… Full Bio