A new study from Forrester says iOS users are 30% more likely to buy something via their device than Android users are. However, most ebusiness professionals are still planning to develop for both platforms.
Even though iOS is where more of the money is at, Android isn’t getting ignored by U.S. companies. Forrester’s study also reported that 96% of ebusiness professionals surveyed for the study plan to launch a native or hybrid Android app by the end of 2013, while 99% said they plan to do the same for iOS.
TechCrunch reports that Forrester says that the amount of resources being poured into iOS and Android apps by companies prevents the BlackBerry and Windows Phone platforms from getting much attention. Only companies with huge budgets are considering making apps for platforms other than the big two.
That’s because around 41 percent of ebusiness pros have only $500,000 or less to spend on their mobile budgets, and 56 percent have less than $1 million. That money can only go so far, and still pales in comparison to general marketing budgets, and even budgets devoted to general web-facing property. This alone is a prime reason why cross-platform solutions will continue to succeed, even as developers debate the merits of cross-platform technologies like HTML5 vs. native tools.
Developers are devoting more and more resources to keep apps supported across all current and new devices and operating system versions. This actually helps Apple and Google as this leads to companies diverting resources away from other competitors.
