Not only traffic, Android now leads iOS also in revenue

New Delhi: Amidst the global Android surge, Apple's iOS platform had remained the favoured platform for developers as it generated more revenue for them. Primarily because users of the more expensive Apple devices have deeper pockets than much of the Android user base. But now the tide appears to be turning.

It seems that the sheer volume of Android users is working to the platform's advantage and recent reports say that "the Android ecosystem has started to overtake the one surrounding the iPhone."

According to Opera Mediaworks, in the first quarter of this year Android generated 45.8 per cent of ad revenue compared with 45.4 per cent for iOS. Adding that this is the first time that Android topped out iOS for mobile ad revenue share. "Mobile advertising data from first quarter of 2015 shows Android not just leading in traffic, but now revenue," says the Opera Mediaworks release.

Another report from Digi-Capital includes numbers from Chinese Android app stores to state that Android stores made more overall revenue than Apple's App Store in 2014. "Apple had the highest smartphone marketshare in China in Q1 in terms of sales, so the balance between iOS and Android could change yet again by the end of 2015," alerts Digi-Capital while asserting that iOS, despite the revenue rise in Android, remains a better pick for developers.

"iOS is a Value market, generating far more revenue per download than other app stores. iOS apps with relatively lower numbers of downloads compared to Android generate significant revenue. Despite the dominance of free apps, even paid apps can make a decent living on iOS. Google Play is a hybrid Value-Volume market, with apps needing well over twice the download volumes on average compared to iOS to make the same revenue. Google Play is a great place to operate, but the long term trend of lower revenue value per download compared to iOS seems set to continue. If developers can hit high download numbers, there is good monetisation to be had on Google Play," Digi-Capital said in a blog post.