The Big Reason Why Developers Focus More on iOS Apps

The iTunes App Store set a new record for the most money handed out to iOS app developers over the course of 2014, with $10 billion divvied out. Furthermore, App Store revenue increased by 50% from the previous year.

In total, Apple has paid a handsome $25 billion to iOS app developers since the App Store first launched back in 2007.

Also, within the first week of 2015 alone, iTunes App Store customers spent $500 million on iOS app purchases, with New Year’s Day marking the biggest day ever for App Store sales.

These reasons, precisely, are why app developers focus more on iOS than on other platforms (like Android and Windows Phone). Apple says the iTunes App Store features over 1.4 million apps that users can download, with over 725,000 of those apps made specifically for iPad.

While iOS app developers have to give 30 cents to Apple for every dollar they make, the $10 billion handed out over the course of 2014 is nothing to scoff at.

As for Google and its Android platform, it’s not currently known how much the company hands out to developers, but according to  principal analyst at Forrester Jeffrey Hammond, the Google Play Store paid out well over $5 billion since last 2013, which was an increase from over $2 billion a year before.

Obviously, this isn’t even close to what Apple has handed out to developers, and that’s one of the big reasons why users will see apps come to iOS first rather than Android.

More often than that, app developers will focus their efforts more on the iPhone and iPad, releasing an updated iOS app first, and then work on an Android version. You probably hear all the time about how your favorite apps get updated first on iOS, or that a new app only comes out on iOS initially, with an Android version “coming soon.”

This is mostly because Apple pays out way more money to developers than Google does with Android, and with record sales for the iTunes App Store, a ton of users are buying apps and taking advantage of in-app purchases, which in turn gives more money to the app developers.

It’s possible for Android to catch up in revenue at some point, and it’s even predicted that it will, but for the time being, the larger revenue that Apple brings in will keep enticing app developers to focus more on iOS apps for the iPhone and iPad.