Only in the past six months has Google's Android platform become significant enough in the market that it made sense for developers to release mobile apps first on that platform, said Miner, who co-founded Android before it was acquired by Google. He spoke at the VentureBeat conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.

"There was just that many more handsets out there, and still a more mature developer ecosystem" for iOS, Miner said. However, he added, "That has clearly flipped" in the past six months, as Android has gained momentum and market share. Last week, that in the three months ending in May, Android was the top smartphone platform in the U.S. with 38 percent of existing devices. It grew faster than iOS, which reached 26.6 percent, while Research In Motion's BlackBerry platform fell to 24.7 percent, comScore said.

One advantage Android has is that developers can more easily get their products out to users, Miner said. For one thing, they can deliver alpha-test and beta-test versions of the software on Android, including through sideloading to the phone, without having to worry about getting them approved by Apple for its App Store.

The venture arm of Google is run purely for investments, without any technology biases imposed by Google product managers or engineers, said Miner, who . "Google has said many times that they will measure our performance based on our financial success," he said. The fund has US$100 million to invest in startups annually.