1. Developers are sick of the Apple App store. Months of developing can go straight into the waste basket when Apple decides your app is not suitable for the App store. Also the subscription based fees Apple is pressing on publishers won’t help the popularity of the App store.

2. Fragmentation (a big problem with Android Apps). Not everyone Android phone has the system requirements to run the latest version of Android. Meaning older phones running older Android versions. This makes it hard for a developer to keep his app up to date for all the different versions.

3. New uses for existing technologies, such as HTML5 and Responsive webdesign, to create compelling online experiences. With these technologies it is easy to create a website which works on every device and screen size.

In the future we will see developers bypassing apps and app stores to create just one centralized web app which plays nice with all modern devices. This shift is already visible with Facebook creating it’s own web app platform, they don’t feel like bowing down to the App store overlords.

In the end the demise of the app will be a lot easier for the developer freeing up time to innovate instead of troubling with App store dictators or fiddling with backwards compatibility.

• The hardware and software are not sold seperately. Remember why Microsoft kicked Apple’s ass when it came to the Operating System battle? Microsoft made Windows available to every PC. Any PC manufacturer could pre-install Windows on their machines. As a result the OS was very widespread very fast. Apple just couldn’t keep up because if you bought an Apple computer you also bought the Mac OS. This decision nearly killed Apple. The same is happening with the iPhone. If you like the phone but hate the software you are screwed. You don’t have an option! Deal with it. Android is becoming availble rapidly on many phones. It is not restricted to one phone.  The Android market share is growing very fast and it seems history is repeating.
• Steve Jobs is watching you(r apps). Apple (and I even think Steve Jobs personally) checks every app before it becomes available in the App store. This means they can censor anything they don’t like. Such apps as Skype, Google Voice or any number of apps. As an App developer you have to invest a lot of time and money into developing an App for the iPhone in hope the Apple Dictators will approve. Android works like a democracy. Anyone can add an App to the market and the people who try the Apps can rate them. Bad apps get low ratings so they will filter out eventually.

This being said Android has a long way to go. It looks a bit clunky and doesn’t have the WOW factor you get when you play with the iPhone. You have to tweak a lot to get a good experience. And with all the different Android versions circulating it’s hard to keep up (for users and developers). Hopefully Android will be improved and have this issues resolved quickly so it can start being the number one mobile Operating System.