Android Passes iOS And RIM For U.S. Smartphone Subscriber Share

Revenues may not be as good, but it seems like Android treats its developers nicer than Apple does. No chance of rejection, no harsh guidelines, no long review process (for acceptance or for updates), no taking 30% of subscription revenue... overall, it seems like they view their developers as equal. When you're developing for iOS, you're developing on Apple's platform (not sure if this conveys what I mean here completely...). You can't compete with their applications, you can't be sure they'll let you in, and you can't even chose how subscribers will pay now. Yes, on Android you're developing on Google's platform, but it seems less like a "sharecropping" situation, even though it technically is.

On the other hand, your point about revenue is still spot on. Fewer paying customers, less expectation of paying for apps, and the glaring fact that you simply can't buy Android apps in a large portion of the world. The first two are difficult (a culture shift is required, and that can't be passed down from Google in an OS update), but the third is perhaps fixable. The issues with iOS aren't likely to change, because that's Apple's culture.

I don't know about RIM, and "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent".

Boy android has a long way to go. App Store paid app revenues are 20x Android market revenues.

Care to elaborate what you mean by VB-like stack?

I agree, but also see other posts which seem to indicate (at least from early results) that most of Verizon's iPhone business was coming at the expense of AT&T (people switching carriers rather than buying into a particular OS). A couple of app vendors were hoping for a big spike when V launched but have yet to see it in terms of sales.