CNNMoney has a look at a report by analytics company Distimo's report that the Android Market would be larger than the iOS App Store by July. The report looked strictly at the numbers of apps, both paid and free, and based on that, drew the conclusion that more apps will be available for Android than for iOS. Based on current numbers, and the frequency of new apps being added to both stores, iOS soon won't have the largest app store (there are already more free Android apps than there are free iOS apps).

There are two substantial problems with the CNN article: One is that it makes heavy reference to a Roughly Drafted article titled "Distimo polishes the Android turd," in which author Daniel Eran Dilger rails against Distimo's predictions, calling them irrelevant because despite a wider variety of apps, iOS brings in substantially more money than Android. The problem with Dilger's complaint is that number of apps and profitability are two separate numbers, and his harping on with his straw man does nothing to further the discussion, serving only to make him feel better about iOS still being in the number one spot. His argument reeks of discomfort.

The second problem is with the article's title: they ask why it's harder to make money on Android, but never answer the question. They assert again and again the fact that Android developers don't make as much money, and that iOS has blockbusters in ways that Android doesn't, but without context they're as informative as Dilger's brushing aside of the majority of Android apps because they're apps lacking polish, quality, or a reason to exist. Sure, we all know that iOS makes way more money, but that's not the end of the discussion.

iOS is a money-making juggernaut, and Android simply isn't, but why that's the case is an interesting, complex question, one that likely has as much to do with the way the phones are marketed and the apps are obtained as it does with the quality of the apps themselves. Dilger points to fart apps on Android as evidence for why sales are in a slump -- because nobody wants one -- conveniently forgetting the fact, prior to Apple's flatulent embargo, fart apps were routinely at the top of the charts. Perhaps the real question is: why can even the most lackluster iOS get money that the best Android apps can't? Certainly the answer can't simply be one of quality.

via CNNMoney, Roughly Drafted