The war waged between cell phone platforms rages on, with Google's Android and Apple's iOS vying for top spot on the smartphone totem poll. Apple continuously reigns supreme as the largest smartphone manufacturer, however, Android has more cell phone operating its system, controlling 52.1 percent of the market share, where Apple trails with 41.3 percent.
The crown is also shared when it comes to app downloads in each platform's respective app center. iOS leads operating systems in revenue, banking over $100 million among all downloads in Q2 of 2014. This is more than $40 million above Android's intake.
Even with these significant sales, many developers make little to no money for developing mobile apps. A quarter of creators do not profit from their apps and half of iOS and 64 percent of Android developers earn less than $500 a month.
Yet, while iPhone users may be paying more for apps, Google Play has recorded a 60 percent increase in downloads during the previous quarter, totaling 150 million compared with only 100 million in the iOS app store. Markets in China and Japan have been leading this massive increase in app sales, with Taiwan, Kuwait and Turkey emerging as well.
Within the U.S., smartphone users have increased to 169 million, representing 70 percent of the country's entire mobile phone presence.
One thing the two rivals have in common: Facebook is the number one mobile app downloaded on both operating systems, dominating with a 76.4 percent share. While app developers often create and release applications exclusively for iOS before rolling them out on Android or Windows platforms, Android has unique apps like Swiftkey, a predictive keyboard that guesses at text while users slide their fingers across a QWERTY keyboard.
Both iOS and Android have their stake in the game, but for now the title for reigning cell phone system seems shared between these two tech giants.
