A mobile operating system is good only if there are developers who believe in it and develop applications for its applications store. In this year iOS was by far the preferred platform by the application developers in the war Android vs iOS, the platform of Apple won certainly. Comparing the projects for applications started on the two platforms in Q3 2011 over three quarters of projects were started for iOS and not for Android OS platform.

While the market nearly doubled for both platforms, we believe key events changed the proportion of support between these two platforms.  Of particular note, Apple expanded distribution for iOS devices beyond its long-standing exclusive with AT&T to include Verizon in February and Sprint in October.

The information is coming from Flurry, a company that analyzes the data sent of over 55,000 companies who use its software. It is well known that the App Store of Apple generates more money than Google’s Android Market and probably from this reason iOS won in Q2 of 2011 the confidence of some developers of applications for Android. Finally Google can not yet compete with Apple to attract developers to its platform and probably will not ever be able to do this but at least it tries.

It is rumored for over a year that Apple prepares to launch some Macs with Retina Display and today those from DigiTimes announce that Apple could launch a MacBook Pro that has a screen resolution of 2880×1800 pixels.

Practically the screen resolution that the editors from Digitimes are talking about is exactly double from the native one of the existing MacBook Pro of 15 inch, but for now 100% reliable information about Apple’s plans do not exist. Macs of 17 inch have a native resolution of 1080p which is extremely hard to double it, so if Apple will prepare a Mac with Retina Display, the 15 inch model should be the target.

Even if DigiTimes is not talking about MacBook Pro of 17 inch that to be retina ready, the new line of Ivy Bridge processors from Intel is able to support resolutions up to 4096×4096. In Mac OS X Lion, Apple changed some graphics making them compatible with resolutions up to 3200×2000 so the company takes seriously the possible launch of a Mac equipped with Retina Display. It’s hard to say when exactly this change will be important for the line of Macs.

At a conference held by Apple in China, the company revealed that in the future will give to users the ability to use AirPlay via Bluetooth but also that the restrictions regarding the compatibility of accessories with standard Bluetooth will change it.

Apple wants to provide to manufacturers of accessories for iDevices can add more functions to their products but at the same time encourages them to use the Bluetooth 4.0 standard implemented in the iPhone 4S.

Apple seems to have a plan to expand AirPlay wireless devices market to be 7 times larger by promoting iPod Accessory Protocol (IAP) via Bluetooth implemented in iOS 5. AirPlay wireless devices has only 2% of MFI program licensed yet.

Basically Apple is trying to expand iDevices that offer streaming through AirPlay to various accessories and perhaps in future we will see increasingly more audio or other devices compatible with our iDevice. It would be interesting to see accessories that allow video streaming from an iDevice but until then Apple has to keep its word and to deliver what it promised.

For some users iOS 5 proved to be the main enemy of the battery autonomy. iOS 5.0.1 solved the problem for some users but for others Apple was forced to admit the second time that launched a version of iOS with problems and now is working on iOS 5.1.

iOS 5.1 beta 2 was released this week and it is expected to solve all the problems with the life battery, the solution could reach soon. Meanwhile an Italian forum made a small battery test on the iOS 5.1 beta 2 and they found that compared to iOS 5.0.1 there is a marginally improved autonomy.

We talk about a few extra minutes of usage for an iPhone 4S but they say that Apple keep open processes in beta versions, processes that improve the battery autonomy. In my experience, what you find in beta verison, you will find in the final version and the battery life has not improved, in my case, at the transition from beta to a final version.

I can say that in all versions of iOS 5.0.1 beta for iPhone 4S I get over 6 hours of usage on making any on the device but to be honest I do not think that I’ll obtain the same thing from any version of iOS 5.x.

In Q2 of 2011 iPad has more than two thirds of the tablet market with a market share of 68.1% in Q3, but it seems that things have changed. Today those from IDC have published estimates of sales in Q3 of 2011 and iPad tablet seems to have lost about 7% of market share reaching a value of 61.5%.

Of course, Android tablets were “stealing” market share and I think that Kindle iPad tablet is assigned a part of a great “victory” because it was sold in millions of copies worldwide.

Apple’s larger portfolio of tablet-specific apps, upcoming iPad versions, and growing physical store presence in key emerging markets like Asia/Pacific will help maintain its global leadership.

iPad tablet market is compared with a mixture of tablets launched by various manufacturers but if you compare strictly the manufacturers then Apple has a market share of 10 times higher than Samsung, the largest manufacturer of tablets in the world.

In 2012 Apple will continue to lose market share now held us tablets will be launched, they will become increasingly better and increasingly will attract more users. I think that an iPad 3 with quad-core would save the day for Apple, but remains to be seen if at the company there is the same thinking.