ArchiveOriginally published 2011

Android vs iOS in 2011: App Sales Worries, Market Share and the Honeycomb Source Fight

In 2011 the smartphone platform contest was live and uncertain, and this site covered its turning points: a Google executive admitting that Android app sales disappointed, market share numbers showing Android passing iOS, and Google's decision to hold back the source code of its first tablet release. All three stories set up the decade that followed.

Google admits Android app sales disappoint

At a developer conference in early 2011 the executive in charge of Android's app store said the company was not happy with the level of paid app purchases and described plans to fix it: in-app purchases, carrier billing so people could pay on their phone bill, and a redesigned store. This site's post treated the admission as significant, and it was. It confirmed what developers had been saying, that Android users paid far less for software than iOS users, and it explained why so many Android apps were free with adverts. The fixes arrived over the following two years and narrowed the gap, but never closed it.

iOS loses market share to Android

The share stories of 2010 and 2011 tracked a simple trend: Android was available on dozens of phones from many makers at every price, while iOS was on one phone at one price point per year. Market research firms showed Android passing iOS in units sold and then pulling away. This site reported the numbers as they came. The commentary at the time often framed this as a repeat of the 1990s PC platform wars, with Android in the role of the licensed operating system and Apple in its old role of the integrated minority. The frame was half right: Android did win units overwhelmingly, but Apple kept the profits, which is not how the 1990s went.

The Honeycomb source code decision

Android 3.0, Honeycomb, was the first version built for tablets, and in March 2011 Google said it would not publish the source code for the time being. The stated reason was that the release had been rushed for tablets and was not ready for phones, and Google did not want manufacturers putting it on unsuitable devices. This site's post covered the implications: for a project that had made openness its main argument against iOS, withholding a release looked like a change of policy. Source for the combined phone-and-tablet release that followed later in the year was published as usual, but the episode marked the start of a pattern in which core functions moved from the open source project into proprietary services that manufacturers licensed.

Why the 2011 stories still matter

The three stories describe the platform shape that has held ever since. Android became the world's default operating system by volume, with the strongest presence in price-sensitive markets and a long tail of manufacturers. iOS kept a minority of units, a majority of high-end buyers and a disproportionate share of app spending. And the balance between open source and control on Android shifted steadily toward control, through licensed services rather than withheld code. Anyone choosing a platform in 2011 on the assumption that one would eliminate the other guessed wrong; both are still here, in roughly the positions the 2011 numbers pointed to.