Google’s Android Market estimated to earn just 7% of what Apple’s App Store makes →
https://marco.org/2011/11/21/appleinsider-android-paid-app-share
“Why don’t you make Instapaper for Android?”
“In other words, it appears that Apple has roughly 85-90% market share in dollars spent on mobile applications,” [Gene Munster] wrote in a note to investors. “While Google has closed the gap in terms of app dollars spent over the last year and we continue to believe Android will grow smartphone share faster than Apple, we believe Apple is likely to maintain 70%+ share of mobile app dollars spent over the next 3-4 years.”
Android has a very large installed base, but a disproportionally small number of people paying for apps. Instapaper’s primary business is selling a premium-priced paid app.
Most startups want to gain marketshare at any cost, usually by giving the core product away for free, so it makes sense for them to expand onto Android. But I’m still not convinced that it makes sense for me to double my development costs and slow down my product cycle to enter a market that I’m unlikely to recover those costs from.