Cumulative App Store titles declined for first time in 2017, report says

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone edited April 2018
Apple's gigantic selection of App Store apps contracted for the first time in 2017, with the online storefront shedding 5 percent of its total app count over the year, according to a report from reporting platform Appfigures.




Citing statistics gathered from millions of iOS and Android app listings, Appfigures saw the number of total App Store apps decline from 2.2 million in the beginning of 2017 to 2.1 million at year's end.

By comparison, the Google Play Store's assortment of Android apps grew to a total of 3.6 million over the same period, up 30 percent on the year. The App Store and Google Play have been on similar trajectories since 2014, but that changed in 2017.

The findings were highlighted by TechCrunch on Wednesday.

The reason for the marked drop in App Store numbers is unknown, but Appfigures speculates stricter enforcement of Apple's review guidelines and iOS 11's deprecation of support for 32-bit apps contributed to the decline.

Apple also began to remove abandoned and "problematic" apps from its store in late 2016, a process that might have spilled over into 2017. Announced in a post to its developer portal, the culling was part of Apple's plan to market only "quality apps" to customers.

Seemingly backing up claims of stricter App Store oversight was a 29 percent drop in new app launches. In 2017, iOS developers released 755,000 apps, marking the first decline since the App Store launched in 2008. By contrast, Google Play Store saw the release of 1.5 million Android titles, an increase of 17 percent year over year.

In addition to a decrease in released apps, the report suggests more developers are porting iOS wares to Android than the other way around. Developers translated nearly 17,500 iOS apps to Android in 2017, while only 7,500 went from Android to iOS. Currently, there are about 450,000 apps that are offered on both the App Store and Google Play, approximately 8.5 percent of the whole.

The remainder of the report details app development tools, per-country shipments, developer growth in China and a breakdown of top app categories. Expectedly, games top both App Store and Google Play.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 27
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Who wants to bet there's a LOT more crapware in that Google app store?
    racerhomie3RobPalmer9DAalsethbshankthinkman@chartermi.netmcdavesuperklotonjbdragonChrispyapplelamboaudi4
  • Reply 2 of 27
    jeff_cookjeff_cook Posts: 67member
    64 bit mandate == spring clean up
    slprescottracerhomie3DAalsethbshankLukeCagechristopher126pscooter63jbdragonrandominternetpersonicoco3
  • Reply 3 of 27
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,289member
    Do we know how much money was made in each store last year? Assume App Store generates much more. 
    RobPalmer9bshankSpamSandwichwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 27
    lito_lupenalito_lupena Posts: 116member
    the number of available apps on offer is no longer a good metric. rather, the quality of apps is, now. what’s to brag about a trillion apps when 80% of those are crap versus just 100,000 and all are of top quality?
    racerhomie3RobPalmer9bshankchristopher126superklotonjbdragonicoco3watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 27
    racerhomie3racerhomie3 Posts: 1,264member
    App Store apps are way better.
    Even native android apps run better on iOS.
    bshankSpamSandwichjbdragonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 27
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    50% of apps are garbage in App store, in play store 90% are garbage.
    lkruppsuperklotondocno42watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 27
    thinkman@chartermi.net[email protected] Posts: 174member
    So, so, so many Apps with almost identical features. Games that play the same just given a coat of paint and a new name. How many calender Apps, reminder Apps, mail Apps, photo Apps, and on and on, do we need? I don't think anyone at Apple can be the arbiter; customers need to rely on other customer's feedback, how often the App is updated, relative feature sets, and such!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 27
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    How many solitaire apps are need exactly?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 27
    thrangthrang Posts: 1,031member
    lkrupp said:
    How many solitaire apps are need exactly?
    The correct answer would be one, right?
    slprescottAlex1N
  • Reply 10 of 27
    arlorarlor Posts: 533member
    There are way too many crappy apps in both stores, in my experience. Android's probably leading in part because the approval process is laxer and in part because with Google having fixed the worst problems with forking the global market is much larger. Profits to the side, of course, but as I don't invest in either company I don't care about that. 
    docno42
  • Reply 11 of 27
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Good. 

    Between the 64-bit cleanup, the stricter rules and the clamp-down on copied apps, then it looks like things are heading in the right direction. 

    docno42watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 27
    mcdavemcdave Posts: 1,927member
    lito_lupena said:
    the number of available apps on offer is no longer a good metric. rather, the quality of apps is, now. what’s to brag about a trillion apps when 80% of those are crap versus just 100,000 and all are of top quality?
    Which also makes the good ones unfindable.  Then again, Android fans don’t care about quality.
    superklotondocno42watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 27
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,515member
    I would be absolutely fine if Apple cleaned house of all apps that haven't been updated in two years, or those with universal one-star reviews, or those that are just fakes/rip-offs of legit apps. And I think that would amount to waaaaaay more than five percent.
    berndogsuperklotonAlex1Ndysamoriawatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 27
    croprcropr Posts: 1,140member
    racerhomie3 said:
    App Store apps are way better.
    Even native android apps run better on iOS.
    Even the IQ of native OS idiots is higher than that of native Android idiots
    berndogmuthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 15 of 27
    KopfschmerzenKopfschmerzen Posts: 54member
    Would be interesting to know how many apps are there with at least one update within a year and >10k downloads.
    Alex1Ndocno42watto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 27
    berndogberndog Posts: 90member
    Might also be nice to remove all apps that update too often like every week or two - they say it’s to make your experience better. But I’m thinking it’s simply to better glean your information for resale.
    Alex1Ndysamoriawatto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 27
    roakeroake Posts: 821member
    Just so you guys know, our new Fart-App 2.0 will be available soon in the Play store.  Apple is giving us trouble, for some reason.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 27
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,971member
    mcdave said:
    lito_lupena said:
    the number of available apps on offer is no longer a good metric. rather, the quality of apps is, now. what’s to brag about a trillion apps when 80% of those are crap versus just 100,000 and all are of top quality?
    Which also makes the good ones unfindable.  Then again, Android fans don’t care about quality.
    How did you reach that conclusion?

    Quality is quality and crap is crap. There are both on all stores.

    If you can't find the good apps, perhaps the store is failing, the user, or both.
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 19 of 27
    Cesar Battistini MazieroCesar Battistini Maziero Posts: 386member
    avon b7 said:
    mcdave said:
    lito_lupena said:
    the number of available apps on offer is no longer a good metric. rather, the quality of apps is, now. what’s to brag about a trillion apps when 80% of those are crap versus just 100,000 and all are of top quality?
    Which also makes the good ones unfindable.  Then again, Android fans don’t care about quality.
    How did you reach that conclusion?

    Quality is quality and crap is crap. There are both on all stores.

    If you can't find the good apps, perhaps the store is failing, the user, or both.
    Android apps are lower quality, you can't disagree with that!

    Snapchat works better, Instagram works better and so many others!
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 27
    avon b7avon b7 Posts: 7,971member
    Cesar Battistini Maziero said:
    avon b7 said:
    mcdave said:
    lito_lupena said:
    the number of available apps on offer is no longer a good metric. rather, the quality of apps is, now. what’s to brag about a trillion apps when 80% of those are crap versus just 100,000 and all are of top quality?
    Which also makes the good ones unfindable.  Then again, Android fans don’t care about quality.
    How did you reach that conclusion?

    Quality is quality and crap is crap. There are both on all stores.

    If you can't find the good apps, perhaps the store is failing, the user, or both.
    Android apps are lower quality, you can't disagree with that!

    Snapchat works better, Instagram works better and so many others!
    I can't? LOL

    Blanket statements don't work here.

    I don't use Snapchat or Instagram. 

    On the other hand I have zero issues with Telegram, WhatsApp, Drive, Gmail and WhatsApp received the last round of new features before the iOS version. Camera360 is MUCH better on Android than iOS.

    What conclusions do you draw from that?
    muthuk_vanalingam
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