Android may hold the biggest smartphone OS share, but it is losing grounds to Apple in other avenues. Factors including the release of iPhone 4S and iPad played significant roles in this industry tiff.  Apple for the first time, has dominated Android in the smartphone market share for the last quarter of 2011.

Android’s Sequential Fall

Gartner reports that Android is still the most popular in the OS side of mobility, with a 50.9% share. While the numbers look good, Android’s actually seen one of its first drops since launch, plunging from the previous quarter’s 52.5%. In the sales arena, Apple has sold over 35.5 units to end users, thanks to the iPhone 4S launch. October was the bittersweet turning point for Apple as they lost their founder and unveiled a new device within a 24-hour span.  But this same period triggered a drastic narrowing of Android’s gap in smartphone purchases.  Android’s numbers starts crippling in the latter part of the third quarter of the previous year.

The hints pieced together from this year alone only further the tale of Android’s misfortune.  Mellisa Tolentino noted that developers still favor Android over iOS just a month ago, but the tables turned quickly for the two warring mobile brands. Within the same week, Apple boasted strong Q1 financial results and never looked back.

Come February, security issues loomed over Android as impostor apps flooded its market. In response Google beefs up its security to strike out malware from their app store, but the disparity between Google’s Android Market and the Apple App Store doesn’t stop there.

The Exodus to iOS

Looks like Tim Cook is living up to some great expectations in this post-Steve Jobs era, and Google has a lot of work to do to regain a convincing lead.  Android app developers are losing enthusiasm as they see more income-generation opportunities with Apple iOS. This is becoming the rule rather than the exception.

Bloomberg cites iOS’ simplicity as the winning factor. The same report revealed that there were fewer applications created for Google’s mobile prodigy, with a ratio of one new Android app for every three Apple apps. The migration of developers to Apple will definitely wound Android’s bid to take down the App Store, which carries more than half a million apps.

Motorola Deal to Benefit Android

While growth factors shrink for Android, their case is still far from the failures that RIM and Symbian witnessed these past few years.  Nokia has already acknowledged that sales are dropping faster that they expected.  And yes, it is too early to downplay Android all together, especially with the promising Google-Momo deal still on the table. With a device lineup of its own, the search giant will have their own testing ground for their OS, and a system of connected devices to compete directly with iOS’s lineup.

Fragmentation may play a role in whatever Android is going through at the moment, with varied manufacturers and a bevy of different brands. This is while Apple has a stable of devices with few OS variation, benefiting with one phone by one manufacturer.