When an app launches, you'll sometimes see it arrive on iPhone before Android.
That can be frustrating for Android owners, and while more and more apps are releasing simultaneously for both platforms, a staggered launch is still the norm.
London-based developer ustwo, creators of the popular Monument Valley game, recently published an infographic that helps show why this may be. It turns out that in this particular case, ustwo made a majority of their money from iPhone and iPad owners, with over 81% of their total revenue coming from iOS.
The rest came from the Google Play store, which accounted for 13.9% , and Amazon's Android store, which made up the remaining 4.3%.
So why the huge discrepancy?
In Monument Valley's case, piracy was the biggest factor, with the developer tweeting out that piracy was a much larger problem on Android compared to iOS.
Interesting fact: Only 5% of Monument Valley installs on Android are paid for. 40% on iOS. There's a sneak peak of data!
- ustwogames (@ustwogames) January 5, 2015
It's also important to remember that Monument Valley is a premium game that costs $3.99, which operates under a very different business model than other free-to-play apps. If Monument Valley were free to download, and monetized through in-game ads or microtransactions, all the developers would care about would be getting their app into the hands of as many people as possible.
But for Monument Valley, that's not the case, and it's a timely example that the big money still exists on iOS. As long as that's still the case, you're going to continue to see apps launching first on iOS.