A new report from IDC predicts that Android will continue to increase in popularity with users — but not with developers. Although researchers usually calculate operating system market share separately for PCs and mobile devices, this report lumps both categories together. According to the report authors, Microsoft Windows is currently the top OS for “smart connected devices” with 35.9 percent of the market. Android has a 29.4 percent share, and Apple’s iOS has 14.6 percent. By 2016, the report predicts that Android will overtake Windows, while iOS remains a distant third.
However, the company forecasts that mobile development firms will continue to make more apps for the iPhone and iPad than for Android. “We expect a large percentage of application developers to continue to focus their efforts on iOS, despite the platform’s smaller overall market share, because iOS end users have proven more willing to pay for high-quality apps,” said IDC’s Tom Mainelli.
