In analysis of mobile operating systems, much is made of app store numbers and marketshare figures. Not enough is made of the differing motivations of the companies behind those operating systems.
Broadly speaking, the patrons behind the five most discussed mobile OSes make money in distinct ways:
Apple (iOS) - We make money when people buy our devices.
Google (Android) - We make money when companies buy advertising from us.
HP (webOS) - We make money when people and companies buy our devices.
Microsoft (Windows Phone 7) - We make money when manufacturers license our operating system.
RIM (BlackBerry) - We make money when companies buy our devices.
Looked at this way, the numbers provide new meaning:
Operating system marketshare is less important to Apple than continued increases in device sales.
If Android is unsuccessful as a vehicle for increasing Google's ad revenues, no amount of marketshare gains are intrinsically useful to Google, other than as a defensive measure against Apple.
Even if HP maintains a miniscule slice of the mobile OS market, if sales volumes increase at a healthy enough clip, webOS will stay in the game.
Talk of 25,000 apps for Windows Phone 7 is interesting, but for now there are only a handful of licensed handsets. It's no wonder they struck a deal with Nokia.
Lower total sales volumes are less important for RIM than wholesale abandonment by corporate purchasers.