HEARD ON THE STREET: Apple Gets Paranoid About Android - WSJ.com

Some intriguing iOS/Android competitive dynamics

By relaxing rules on how developers can build applications for the iPhone and other Apple devices running iOS software, such as the iPad, it should be easier for developers to make apps for both Apple and devices running Android.

That is both good and bad for Apple. As Android's smartphone market share has now passed that of Apple—17.2% to 14.2% at the end of the second quarter, Gartner estimates—Apple's strict app rules could have ended up hurting it. Some developers might have chosen to go with Android instead. Now they can do both. In the short term, though, Apple likely has more to lose, given its existing lead in apps—roughly 250,000 to Android's 80,000.

HEARD ON THE STREET: Apple Gets Paranoid About Android - WSJ.com