If Apple is Apollo Creed, that certainly means Android is Rocky Balboa. (Circa Rocky I, that is.)
In just about a year, Android has doubled its revenue from Android smartphone app sales, bringing it up to a crazy $6.8 billion, said tech market research group, ABI. Things are looking pretty good for Android thanks to that bump, and it doesn't hurt that Google is in Android's corner: they own about 70-percent of global mobile ad revenue, and with 90-percent of apps now free and ad-supported, that gives Google a huge playing field to work with. “Android’s digital advertising, which is primarily based on Google’s powerful analytics search engine and vast experience, gives the company a big edge over Apple,” ABI said. “Google has been incredibly successful at mastering targeted online advertising.”
Still, even with its huge rise in revenue, that $6.8 billion is only 60-percent of that Apple brings in for its apps. “Apple’s iOS still leads all the other mobile operating systems’ revenues by a significant margin; however, the greater number of Android smartphones in use is clawing back Apple’s lead in this market,” senior ABI analyst Josh Flood said. “This year, Android smartphones will ship by a factor of more than three-to-one to iPhones.”
Let's see if Apple's Sept. 10th iPhone event changes that prediction.
[via Venture Beat]
