Android Users Don't Know Enough to Matter

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apple(AAPL) took a few shots at Google(GOOG) last week during their WWDC keynote.

Even Siri poked fun at Google's names for their different versions of their operating systems (Ice Cream Sandwich, Cupcake and FroYo): "Who came up with these names, Ben & Jerry's?"

But the really stunning stat to come out at the conference was from Scott Forstall, who is the head of Apple's mobile software. He pointed out that more than 80% of Apple's iOS users were running the latest version of iOS. However, only 7% of Google Android users are running the latest version of their software.

This is important from a couple of perspectives. First, from a developer's perspective, it is very attractive when deciding which operating system you want to develop your application on first.

Jeff Verkoeyen, the developer who built Facebook's(FB) iPad app (and also my nephew), tweeted this after hearing this stat above in the keynote:

This is one of the many reasons why I love building for iOS. 80% vs 7% latest-gen adoption.

But this issue is also relevant to time spent browsing on iOS vs. Android. Consulting firm Flurry Analytics found 69% of new mobile application developer projects started in the first quarter of 2012 were for iOS. This compares to only 31% for Android.

At first, this might seem odd, given that the media continuously reports that Android's market share in smart phones is greater than Apple's.

But another explanation might have to do with mobile browsing. Starting last June, U.S. users started spending more minutes per day browsing on their mobile devices compared to their PCs.