iPad 2, Verizon iPhone causing developer migration from Android platform
Flurry Analytics regularly studies new project starts among its clients, and its numbers for Q2 2011 show a decline in Android's developer support compared to the previous quarter. New project starts on the Android platform declined from 36 percent to 28 percent, which Flurry notes is the second quarter-over-quarter decline in Android developer support.
Over 2010, support for the Android platform rose steadily enough that various pundits used it as evidence that iOS was "doomed" and would suffer the same low market share fate as the Mac. These new results from Flurry show that's not the case, and the firm cites two likely factors in the declining developer support for Android: the Verizon iPhone 4 and the iPad 2.
Until earlier this year, the iPhone was available solely on AT&T, and many analysts suggested that was one of the major barriers to increasing the device's adoption rate in the U.S. Meanwhile, Android handsets took Verizon owners by storm, but analysts wondered whether that would last once the iPhone became available on the CDMA network. Flurry suggests the Verizon iPhone's debut, plus huge consumer demand for the iPad 2 (and apps that run on it), are likely behind the apparent developer migration from Android to iOS.
Naturally, this is just one set of results, and as such it's both far too early and extremely misguided to start digging a cemetery plot for the Android platform. It's almost certain that Android and iOS will co-exist and compete for years to come, so any pronouncements of doom and gloom from either side aren't really worth the pixels they're displayed on.
