iOS is Apple’s mobile operating system. Applications from the iTunes app store will run on any iOS device. iOS devices are the iPhone, the iPad and iPod Touch.

If you are a software developer trying to decide between developing for Android or for Apple’s iOS, you would likely be interested in the total number of users of each. While Android proponents have lately claimed that Android has a larger share of the phone market than iOS, they are ignoring a huge portion of the iOS installed base.

Google Inc.’s Android might be the most popular smartphone platform, but if you add other mobile devices like tablets to the mix, Apple Inc.’s iOS beats Android in the U.S. by a wide margin — 59% to be exact.

That’s according to new data being released Tuesday by measurement firm comScore, which surveyed 30,000 users of mobile devices for the three months ending in February to arrive at its estimates.

The research found that Apple’s iOS platform — on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches – reached 37.9 million people, while Android reached 23.8 million, on phones and tablets.

The other data point that such developers might wish to examine is the average amount spent on applications by iOS users and Android users. Again, iOS is much, much higher than Android.

The iPhone and iPad user is interested in buying content–that’s one of the reasons they bought the device. The Android buyer is different. It’s a great phone–make no mistake about it. But if you really want first rate digital content on a device, your first look will probably be an iPhone. And on the tablet, an iPad.

So, which platform would you choose for your development efforts?

Disclosure: I own Apple stock.

Related articles

• Study: iOS Has ‘Twice The Reach’ of Android (techland.time.com)
• comScore: iOS Has Twice the Installed Base of Android (slashgear.com)
• iOS outreaches Android when iPod touch, iPad are counted in the mix (tuaw.com)
• comScore: Including iPads, iPods And Tablets, Apple’s iOS Outreaches Android By 59 Percent (techcrunch.com)