The smartphone market is a fascinating place right now. Apple is doing well, Android is on a real tear, and Windows Phone is gearing up for a big push into 2012. Even the much-maligned BlackBerry has its new BBX platform on the way to (possibly) help reverse its sliding market share.
The smartphone space is more competitive than ever, then. Yet The Guardian's daily Apps Rush column continues to be dominated by iOS apps, with a relative dearth of Android apps, as several commenters have pointed out in recent weeks. What gives?
Are we biased? Lazy? Bribed? Or is there something else going on here that explains why so many apps that we cover are only available on Apple's devices? You may have guessed that this is a piece to propose the latter theory.
The short answer: a lot of good apps are still iOS-only, meaning that Apps Rush is an accurate reflection of the calibre of apps being released for the various platforms, rather than an accurate reflection of an institutional bias towards Cupertino.
The long answer? That follows, and hopefully explains why this is the case, and what might be done to redress the balance.
How Apps Rush is compiled
Apps Rush is published every morning, with the aim of spotlighting a bunch of brand-new apps that are innovative, interesting and/or entertaining, across all platforms. Perhaps foolishly, it takes far more work than simply browsing a few press releases.
As a rough guide, around 20% of apps covered in the post come from press releases, based on filtering 12-20 releases sent to me every day. Around 10% of Apps Rush entries come from direct contact from developers via email or (increasingly) via Twitter.
The other 70%? It's all about RSS feeds. Maybe 20% of Apps Rush entries come from stories on other sites, from tech blogs like TechCrunch and VentureBeat through to the sites of developers and platform owners.
But around 50% of Apps Rush entries come from me scanning every new app, every day, on the four main app stores: iOS' App Store, Android Market, BlackBerry App World and Windows Phone Marketplace. Only BlackBerry's store has an official RSS feed, so for the others I use Appshopper, AndroLib and WP7Applist respectively.
A lot of effort for a relatively low-profile post? Maybe, but it means scoops: Apps Rush regularly includes apps that won't be officially announced for hours, days or even weeks. As a side-effect, there's no better way to keep an accurate pulse of the rhythms and trends on the various stores, for better or worse.
Why so few Android apps?
The first lesson from this daily process is this: there is a lot of rubbish on all the stores. The vast majority of new BlackBerry apps are themes, for example, while a big chunk of new Windows Phone apps are ports of e-books. Android Market? A feast of wallpapers, crap clone games, apps that do nothing but have a celebrity's name in the title to spur downloads, and yes, many many bouncing boobs.
The App Store has a lot of rubbish too, of course, albeit with less boobs, wallpapers and themes due to Apple's policies and platform. The difference is this: for every 500 apps I scan on each of the main platforms, I'll come up with around 10-15 interesting ones for iOS, up to three for Windows Phone and BlackBerry, and 4-5 on a good day for Android. On a bad day for those three latter platforms, I'll draw a blank.
So, applying the same criteria to all the stores – innovative, interesting and/or entertaining apps – the fact is that there are many more coming out for iOS than for its rivals. To illustrate the point, here's a quick list of some apps that came out in October and were only available on iOS:
Shuffler.fm, Umami, Barcelona: DK Eyewitness, Junk Jack, Good Food One-Pot Recipes, Bloom, MapMatcher London, Cupple, Fantasy Safari, D&AD 2011, Artfinder, Oink, Crime City HD, Poker Pals, Livestand, Flow Powered by Amazon, Doctor Who Encyclopedia, Rumble in the Jungle, Walmart for iPad, 7 Billion, Shoebox by 1000memories, Batch, Modern Combat 3, Codify, My Town 2, Don't Let The Pigeon Run This App, Adobe Carousel, Booksy, Timmy Time HD, Fanatix, Absolute 80s Remixer, DK Pregnancy Day By Day App, Whale Trail, Time Populist, DK My First Word Play App, Audiofuel Running Music, Fruit Ninja: Puss In Boots…
These are all interesting apps that came out on iOS and not on Android. Without wishing to sound defensive, is the question here "Why is The Guardian ignoring Android?", or is it "Why did the developers and publishers of all these apps launch exclusively on iOS?"
When will this change?
There are some obvious answers. A lot of developers and publishers continue to see iOS as their lead platform, if not their only one. There are three factors at play here: how many devices are in the market for each of the platforms, how costly it is to release an app for them, and how much money the developer or publisher thinks they can make.
iOS scores highly on all three counts. Android certainly has no problem with scale, but a lot of developers still see its device and OS fragmentation as a barrier. Meanwhile, many of those making paid apps also see Android falling down on the third criteria: they perceive Android users to be less willing to buy apps, and also more willing to pirate them.
I expect this to change in 2012. The sheer size of the Android audience, allied to Google's ongoing improvements to its Android Market store, is already shifting developer attitudes on bringing their apps to Android from "if" to "when".
Apps funded by advertising and/or in-app purchases have been first to make the leap, but in 2012 there should even be more paid apps launching on iOS and Android simultaneously. There is also a definable uptick in developers porting apps to Windows Phone, with an eye on its potential for growth in the next 12-18 months.
Google may begin to do more PR for third-party apps on its platform rather than just its own apps, which might help too – Nokia, RIM and Microsoft's PR agencies all send out weekly emails to journalists with details of new apps, for example.
Market forces will bump up the number of good and great Android apps, as well as those on other platforms, and that will be reflected in Apps Rush. But is there more that can be done at this end?
What can we do?
One challenge with the RSS-led way of researching Apps Rush is that it's not so good for identifying apps that could be classed as "useful". Unbranded productivity tools are very popular on Android, but it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff based on a title and two-line app description in an RSS reader.
One idea would be regular posts on the Apps Blog where Guardian readers recommend their favourite apps for their devices - iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and so on. Another might be more group tests: "The best apps in genre x for platform y".
What do you think? The aim of this post is to explain why so many iOS apps are covered here in comparison to rival devices, but all suggestions are welcome to improve our coverage, as is a healthy debate on the quality and quantity of new apps being released for the various platforms.