Android nears 50% mark in the US, comScore reports

[HappySqurriel]

famousringo said:

mrstickball said:

I'd say developers are more interested in the number of people actively using the platform. 

Yes, "actively" is the key word here. comScore shows cell phone subscriptions. But while Android subscribers have been growing relative to iPhone subscribers, Android app projects have been declining relative to iOS.

How can we reconcile this conflict? By accepting that the average iOS user is massively more active than the average Android user. I've already cited Google searches. The disparity in app revenue is well documented and mentioned in the link above. Web usage suggests iOS users are three times more active.

comScore doesn't show activity at all, it just shows contracts. Entire markets of mobile devices don't even show up in comScore's smartphone-only analysis. It's not an irrelevant data point, but developers sure don't seem to be making business decisions based on who's kicking ass in the comScore rankings.

I wouldn't expect the users to be substantially different in how they use the device; and, after a decade of buying music at prices that were often more expensive than buying a CD, iTunes users have just been "trained" to be far more likely to pay for apps.