Apple’s share of global smartphone app downloads stood at 29 percent in the second quarter of 2012, significantly below the 47 percent attributed to Android smartphones, according to new data from ABI Research.

The main reason for the declining market share is Apple’s clampdown on download “bots” earlier this year, which some developers had been using to manipulate their chart positions.

In the Android space, bots have not been such a big factor, which ABI said was because of Google’s different app ranking methods, and the fact that there is “still far less money changing hands” than on iOS.

It was noted that the launch of the iPhone 5 is likely to lead to an improvement in Apple’s share, “but that may be of a rather temporary nature”, senior analyst Aapo Markkanen said.

“It’s notable that among the iOS apps the momentum is also shifting up the value chain and towards iPad applications, and this change is happening definitely faster than what Google is experiencing. We estimate in the first half of this year the iPad saw over five times more app downloads than all Android tablets combined,” Markkanen continued.