90% of the Money Spent on Mobile Apps Comes From the App Store

With the iPad coming under scrutiny as the competition begins its latest assault on Apple’s tablet dominance, new figures suggest that the iPad may still be the best bet for those looking to make a living out of making tablet-based apps.
Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst Gene Munster has written in a research note released Monday that Apple’s iPad still accounts for between 85% and 90% of the money spent on mobile applications.
The news comes as Android moves into a new era thanks to the release of Ice Cream Sandwich, the release which Google hopes will combine the tablet and smartphone software in a way similar to the iPad and iPhone. Munster’s claims show that Android may still be suffering from an old issue: Android users just don’t seem to buy apps as much as iOS users…
Munster goes on to say that he believes around 1.3% of Android apps downloaded are of the paid-for variety, while that statistic jumps to a comparatively massive 14% for the iPad and iPhone’s App Store.
With buyers seemingly unwilling to spend money on their Android applications, developers of the Google persuasion are left with an ad-based model as their only source of income. Whether that will be enough to pull the very best iOS developers over to Android remains to be seen, but it isn’t quite happening just yet.
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When it Comes to Smartphone Displays, Does Size Matter?

Over the last few years, there’s consistently been one feature about the iPhone I’d hoped Apple would change. Its display size. Say what you want about portability, but a 3.5? screen is far from ideal for any kind of extended web browsing.
Needless to say, the Cupertino company hasn’t touched the iPhone’s screen size, and I’ve always kind of wondered why. Recently I came across an article by Dustin Curtis, a designer, that offers some interesting thoughts on Apple’s reasoning…
In the post, Curtis talks about an epiphany he had while using his recently purchased Samsung Galaxy S II:

“When you first see a phone with a 4-inch or larger screen, it seems like a much better experience. I thought it was a technical decision, and it could be, but since switching to an Android phone — a Samsung Galaxy S II — 15 days ago, I have realized another huge downside of larger screens: when holding the phone with one hand, I can’t reach the other side of the screen with my thumb.”

He goes on to explain that trying to touch the upper right hand of his Galaxy S II’s 4.2? display with one hand is frustrating, and nearly impossible. With his iPhone 4, however, he found that he could reach the other side of the screen without straining.

Several tech writers have picked up on the article, and it has moved them to publish their own opinions. Here’s Marco Arment on the matter:

“As a four-year iPhone user, I’ve never thought, “You know what I don’t like about this phone? The screen’s too small. I’d like to reduce my battery life, and I’d like my phone to protrude from my pocket in a larger and more conspicuous rectangle to achieve a larger screen that I cannot comfortably use one-handed. That would be completely worth it.”

I agree with Arment in the fact that I don’t think I would want my iPhone much bigger than it already is. But I do enjoy the extra screen real estate on my girlfriend’s Droid Bionic when browsing around eBay and other websites.
If you ask me, an iPhone with a 3.7-4.0-inch display would be perfect. Users would enjoy the larger viewing area, and could still comfortably operate the handset with one hand. What’s your idea of the perfect smartphone screen size?
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