According to a new report, application downloads for the Android OS will overtake downloads for iOS during the year. The analyst house, Ovum, estimates that application downloads for Android devices will reach 8.1 billion for 2011, as TechRadar reports. Ovum estimates that iOS app downloads will fall behind, to ‘only’ 6 billion. Even if these figures are accurate, Apple likely would not be complaining of the figures. In 2010, there were only 2.7 billion apps downloaded, so such an increase would likely be excellent news for the company.
The increase for Android, should these figures be accurate, would be stunning. In 2010, the Android operating system saw 1.4 billion app downloads. Despite being the dominant mobile operating system at present, it appears Android users may not be fully utilizing their handset with all the apps that the Android Market offers.
Total downloads for 2011, according to Ovum, are around 18 billion. The leap would be massive, as 2010’s total was 7.4 billion apps downloaded for all smartphones. Taking these figures as being precisely correct, Microsoft may not be too pleased: the analysts have estimated Windows Phone 7 will overtake BlackBerry OS, as well as it’s ‘App World’, to enter third place on the leaderboard.... by 2015.
Ovum’s figures fit with those of another company, by the name of Strategy Analytics. In July, TechRadar also reported Strategy Analytics’ findings, using the third-party app stores as well. The third party stores, such as GetJar and the Amazon App Store, could potentially make the findings more accurate.