Is Apple pulling away from Android?

Where do developers think that the mobile smart phone market is going? After all, they might have the most accurate guesses since they have their money on the line. This new report from Flurry shows that Android and Blackberry are in for a tough battle, though I don't think that Flurry's conclusion that "In short, more developers are building more apps" quite gets the full effect. First one thing that needs to be understood is that the market is growing so Android's 10 percent over the past 60 days actually represents more development than the 18 percent in 2009. That said, I think that the best comparison is to compare the relative ratios. In 2009, iPhone development is 4.3 times greater than for Android. Over the past 60 days, that ratio is now 6.7 times. That is a 56 percent growth in Apple's relative share of developers.

If you include iPhone and iPad together, the ration rises to 8.9 times. Going from 4.3 to 8.9 times is a doubling of Apple's relative share. Given that iPad and iPhones have very similar operating system, it seems reasonable to add them together. But whether it is iPhone or iPhone plus iPad, Apple is pulling away from Android.

Meanwhile, if things are looking difficult for Android, Apple is crushing Blackberry. In 2009, Apple's share was 19.5 times the share for Blackberry. Over the past 60 days, it was 67 times greater. Obviously, if you include iPad, the change is even more lopsided.

Possibly developers had already accurately guessed iPad's strong sales. But headlines such as USA Today saying "Could iPad be sold out by early afternoon Saturday?", this looks like the perfect set up to snowball further.