Android has 76% of the market. iOS developers earn 40% more. How is that possible?

Android has 76% of the global smartphone market. iOS has 22%. By the logic of scale, specializing in Android should be the obvious choice for a developer who wants to maximize employability and income.

The data says otherwise. iOS developers consistently earn more, iOS apps generate considerably more revenue on the App Store than their equivalents on Google Play, and companies looking for good native developers have a harder time filling iOS positions than Android ones. Explain that.

Market share isn't the user

Android's market share is real, but it's a misleading economic indicator. That 76% of the world's smartphones includes devices that cost €80 in emerging markets where the app economy works completely differently. Many of those users don't buy apps. Many of those markets have per-user spending power that's a fraction of the average iOS user's.

The iOS user has, statistically, more purchasing power, more willingness to pay for quality apps and higher retention on subscription platforms. That's not prejudice: it's the data point that explains why many development studios prioritize iOS even though Android has more active devices. 22% of the market with much higher paid conversion can generate more revenue than 76% with lower conversion.

The ecosystem is everything

There's another factor market share numbers don't capture: Apple's ecosystem is a single one. A developer who knows Swift can build for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV and Vision Pro with the same language, the same tools and a large share of the same code.

Android has no equivalent. The Android universe is fragmented across manufacturers, OS versions and screen resolutions, which makes development and testing considerably more complex. Not impossible, but more complex.

For a company that wants to be present across every Apple platform, a senior iOS developer is worth more than a 22% market share suggests. They can cover six platforms. The job market prices that in.

The job market in Spain and remote

In Spain, the market for native iOS developers has for years been one where demand outstrips supply. Companies looking for good Swift developers struggle to find them. Those working remotely for international clients struggle even more.

That has a direct consequence: salaries for senior iOS developers in Spain sit above the average for the software industry, and in remote positions for companies outside Spain the gap is even wider.

The shortage of good iOS developers isn't temporary. It's structural. It's been this way for years, and there's no sign it will change soon. Much of it comes down to the fact that the bar for doing things well on iOS is higher than on Android or cross-platform. That protects the people who have cleared it.

So, iOS or Android?

The question has a simple answer if you reframe it: do you want to specialize in the ecosystem with the most unmet demand for talent, the highest salaries in the segment, and the chance to cover six platforms from the world's most valuable manufacturer with a single language? Then there you go.

That doesn't make Android a bad choice. It's a perfectly valid one, with its own market, its own demand and its own use cases. But if the question is what to specialize in when you're starting from zero, the data points in a pretty clear direction.

Android's 76% market share is an impressive number. It's not the number that matters when deciding where to build your career as a developer.