이전부터 기자나 분석가는 안드로이드의 증가하는 시장 점유율이 그에 맞는 앱 플랫폼의 결정적인 우위를 가져다줄 것이라 주장하였습니다. PC 시대에 Windows의 점유율이 개발자를 끌어들이고, Mac 개발을 위축시켰던 것처럼 말입니다. 이런 전망이 제기된 이후 안드로이드는 계속해서 성장했고, 구글 플레이 스토어의 앱 개수는 늘어나고 품질은 개선되었습니다.

하지만 TIME 기자는 결국 안드로이드의 성장이 iOS의 손해가 되지는 않았다고 주장합니다. 대신 둘 사이에 일종의 균형 상태가 찾아왔다고 보았습니다. 물론 이 상황은 안드로이드와 iOS 사용자 모두에게 이득이 되는 것이지만, 시장점유율이 모든 것에 우선할 것이라는 이전의 전망과는 들어맞지 않습니다. 기자는 iOS가 아직도 이점을 갖는 이유를 몇 가지 추측하였습니다.

- iOS 사용자가 앱을 더 많이 사용하고 돈을 더 지불해 (관련 기사 #1 #2)
- 여러 플랫폼을 지원하는 것의 어려움
: 스타트업은 두 종류의 앱을 동시에 만들 만한 자원이 없으며, 안드로이드를 희생하는 경우가 많음. 대형 회사의 경우에도 Facebook이 Paper를 iPhone용으로 내놓는 것과 같이 모든 플랫폼을 동시에 진행하기는 어려움.
- 안드로이드 개발의 어려움
- 개발자가 선택하는 두 번째 플랫폼이 iPad (예: Mailbox)
- 미국에서는 안드로이드가 완전한 우세에 있지 않음
(Comscore 기준 안드로이드 51.5% / iOS 41.8%)
- 실리콘 밸리의 iOS 편향

하지만 이런 앱 기반의 시스템은 현재 떠오르고 있는 클라우드 기반 서비스가 성장해 어떤 플랫폼을 사용하든 상관없어지는 상황이 오면 위협받을 수 있다고 지적했습니다. 예를 들어 Facebook은 윈도우건 맥이건 크롬북이건 상관없이 동일합니다. 구글의 경우 웹 서비스에 빠르게 대응할 수 있을 테지만, 애플의 경우에는 앱 이후의 환경에서 어떻게 대응할 수 있을지 명확하지 않다고 전망했습니다.
 

* Read more: The Smartphone App Wars Are Over, and Apple Won | TIME.com http://techland.time.com/2014/02/21/ios-vs-android-2/#ixzz2u4odyX00

Actually depending on Android to do real work reminds me that even though both iOS and Android have over a million apps, they haven’t reached parity when it comes to the ones I’m most interested in using. Leaving iOS behind means doing without Secret and Facebook’s Paper, for instance. And racing Anki’s amazing little cars is no longer an option.

In some cases, an Android app is available, but lacks key features: The one for TiVo, for instance, lets you manage your DVR’s recordings but doesn’t, like, let you watch them. In other instances, an Android version is feature-complete but not as elegant as its iOS counterpart, such as with Instagram, which doesn’t let you pinch to zoom in and out of an image you’re posting,

Now, it’s rare for the creators of a significant app to simply ignore Android altogether. Secret, for example, is apparently trying to hire someone to work on an Android version even as we speak, judging from its job listings. But for many companies, the Android version is what you get to work on after you’ve shipped the iOS one, leaving Google’s ecosystem in a mode of permanent catch-up. Even though about 80 percent of new smartphones shipped run Android, giving apps written for it a vastly larger theoretical customer base.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Pundits such as Business Insider’s Henry Blodget continue to argue that Android’s overwhelming market share will inevitably lead to it becoming the dominant app platform — just as Windows’ overwhelming market share led developers of PC software to focus on it and give short shrift to the Mac, thereby helping Microsoft and hurting Apple.

Blodget has been making this case since at least April of 2011, when he said that Apple fans should be “scared to death” of Android’s surging market share and the likelihood that it would lead to developers favoring Google’s ecosystem. Venture capitalist Fred Wilson blogged similar sentiments at the same time.

Since then, Android’s growing popularity has clearly had a positive effect on the quantity and quality of goods in Google’s app market. Here’s the thing, though: Android’s gain has not been iOS’s loss. And over the last couple of years, we seem to have reached a state of equilibrium:

• If you’ve got an iPhone, you can pretty much assume that any major app that wouldn’t be nixed by Apple’s App Store policies will be available to you, and that you’ll get future updates at least as early as anyone else.
• If you’ve got an Android phone, you’ll get most major apps. But there are exceptions. And even when an app or update comes your way, you might need to wait for weeks or months after the iOS version is available. You will, however, have access to numerous neat apps in categories that are taboo on iOS, such as replacement home screens and alternative keyboards.

(Sorry, owners of Windows Phones and BlackBerrys: Your situations are worth examining, too, but I’m not going to do it in this particular piece.)

The current situation seems to me to be a largely happy one for both iOS and Android users. They’re two great platforms, each with some unique strengths and access to vast quantities of apps. But it’s not the scenario long predicted by the market share ūber alles crowd. And there aren’t even any isolated incidents that should set off little alarms in Apple’s head — a hot app or a big company announcing that it’s decided to go Android-first.

So it isn’t rash to declare that we’ve reached the point where the reasonable conclusion is that market share alone is not the overriding factor. A few factors which help explain why iOS keeps its app edge come to mind:

• iOS users are more app-happy and free-spending than Android users. There are plenty of stats saying that’s the case, such as this one and this one. That makes iOS a more attractive market even though it’s got fewer bodies than Android.
• Supporting multiple platforms is tough. Many of the most interesting apps come from tiny startups that pretty much don’t have the option of releasing two ambitious pieces of software at the same time. Something’s gotta give, and what gives is nearly always Android. Even big companies with lots of resources — such as Facebook, which released Paper as an iPhone exclusive — can’t do everything all at once. Which makes it that much tougher for Android to have a shot at pulling even with iOS, let alone breezing past it.
• Developing for Android is a hassle. The obvious obstacle is the challenge of supporting a bevy of devices from different manufacturers, with varying specs and hardware features, running different variants of the operating system. But even without that factor, I’ve chatted with many coders who say it’s just harder to get a slick app up and running on Android than it is with iOS. How hard? Maybe twice as hard.
• Sometimes the second platform a developer supports is the iPad. Such as the e-mail app Mailbox, which originated on the iPhone, and then arrived in a version nicely rethought for the iPad’s larger display. A year later, an Android version is still a to-do list item for Mailbox’s creators. Might it have shown up faster if there was no such thing as an iPad?
• In the U.S., Android isn’t the runaway market-share champ. This country remains the single most important producer of smartphone apps, and Google, though ahead, isn’t creaming Apple here. In Comscore’s latest numbers, for instance, Android has 51.5 percent share and iOS has 41.8 percent. That reflects a small dip for Android and an uptick for iOS, an inconvenient truth for anyone who argues that Apple’s operating system is on an inexorable march towards irrelevance.
• iOS has a cultural advantage in Silicon Valley. As far as I can tell, the majority of the tech execs who decide how to allocate development resources are still iOS users, personally. If they were all required to give up their iPhones for six months in favor of the Android device of their choice, it might change their perspective.