Google Play takes top spot in downloads, but Apple's App Store still tops revenue

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
Based on sheer volume of downloaded apps, Google Play for Android has finally surpassed its rival app repository, according to the latest study, but the App Store still maintains a strong edge in terms of revenue generated for developers.



The newest figures come from the App Annie Blog, which measured app downloads in the second quarter of 2013, along with other indicators. App Annie found that Google Play downloads exceeded App Store downloads by 10 percent in the quarter, attributing that growth in no small part to app download growth in developing markets such as Russia, China, Brazil, and India.

That Google Plau has only just now surpassed the App Store in terms of downloads is likely a testament to the greater engagement of iOS device owners with their devices. Android is estimated to run roughly three out of four mobile devices shipped worldwide, but at least one-third of those are running a years-old version of the Android OS, meaning that they may not be as well able to access recent apps, and their users may not be downloading as many apps.

Google Play, the search giant recently revealed, has also surpassed the App Store in terms of overall app volume. The Play Store now counts more than one million apps in its library, while the App Store, according to last count, has just over 900,000. Apple's offering, though, bests Google when it comes to tablet-optimized apps, with 375,000 apps built for the iPad while Google struggles to get developers to optimize their apps for the myriad Android tablets.

The App Store also bests Google in what may be the most important category: overall revenue generated both for the store and for developers hosted therein. App Annie's study found that the App Store generated 2.3 times the revenue of the Play Store, despite the Play Store's 10 percent advantage in overall downloads. That figure was slightly down from the 2.6x figure App Annie found in its last examination of the market.

That revenue gap has resulted in a tremendous edge for Apple in terms of app quality and developer loyalty. Developers with App Store offerings have made more than $11 billion in sales since the store's opening, with half of that coming in the last four quarters.

In terms of revenue, the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom retained the top three spots among iOS revenue generators, while China slipped one spot to fifth place and Australia rose one spot to fourth place. Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. were the top three revenue-generating countries for Google Play, with Germany and the United Kingdom rounding out the top five.

The U.S. and China still make up the top two markets for app downloads on both platforms. The two countries accounted for about 40 percent of all downloads from the iOS App Store in the past quarter. Apple has continually expanded its efforts to get the Chinese to adopt its products, viewing the world's most populous country as a huge opportunity. Most recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook met with the head of China's largest wireless carrier, likely with the intent of discussing bringing Apple's next iPhone, and perhaps a cheaper iPhone, to that network.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    Who cares? Both companies need to hold these developers accountable for quality apps.
  • Reply 2 of 16
    Here come the malware satire.
  • Reply 3 of 16
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    This is we're we get to say: Google is cheap!
  • Reply 4 of 16
    yojimbo007yojimbo007 Posts: 1,165member
    Bogus... I dont trust amy information from these so called research companies.. After samsung and google have been both cought red handed bribing and publishing misinformation!
    As they say.. The ones with integrity rise above through action. The lowlives try to drag others down through misinformation .. Lies and manipulation.
  • Reply 5 of 16
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    yojimbo007 wrote: »
    Bogus... I dont trust amy information from these so called research companies.. After samsung and google have been both cought red handed bribing and publishing misinformation!
    As they say.. The ones with integrity rise above through action. The lowlives try to drag others down through misinformation .. Lies and manipulation.

    App Annie is pretty well regarded.
  • Reply 6 of 16
    d4njvrzfd4njvrzf Posts: 797member


    I wonder how many of those one million Google Play apps are wallpaper packages.

  • Reply 7 of 16
    bwhagainbwhagain Posts: 22member
    Being surpassed is being surpassed. Considering there are many third party stores, android app download perhaps has surpassed ios apps for a while. And half of app store's revenue is nothing to sneeze at. Windows is clunky, infested with malware, so what? It still dominates. Without Jobs Mac would have been dead. It remains to be seen how long Apple can keep the lead without Jobs.
  • Reply 8 of 16
    9secondko9secondko Posts: 929member
    or iPhone themes... LOL
  • Reply 9 of 16
    9secondko9secondko Posts: 929member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by BwhAgain View Post



    Being surpassed is being surpassed. Considering there are many third party stores, android app download perhaps has surpassed ios apps for a while. And half of app store's revenue is nothing to sneeze at. Windows is clunky, infested with malware, so what? It still dominates. Without Jobs Mac would have been dead. It remains to be seen how long Apple can keep the lead without Jobs.


     


    Jobs is irreplaceable.


     


    But he hedged well.


     


    when he came back, he made sure Cook was on board and Ive was given creative room.


     


    Jobs was the rock star, but Cook did the work.  He was the one making sure everything was in its place and running smoothly.  A well fed machine.


     


    Ive created the hardware that made the world take notice.


     


    A solid component engineering team and the world's best software engineers made it all come to life.


     


    Those folks are not only still there, they have poured into new blood.


     


    The company is better than it ever has been with better products now than at any point in its history.


     


    Things are looking up.


     


    Apple never had a mission to make the most, though they have on many occasions.  


     


    Their mission is to make the best.  Mission accomplished.  Again and again and again.  Nobody comes close.


     


    And they are getting better. Under Steve Jobs, Apple would release new hardware at an excruciatingly slow rate.  but it was awesome when it came out.


     


    Now, Apple releases hardware much faster.  And it's still awesome when it comes out.


     


    Steve was a visionary the likes of which the tech world has never seen. There may never be another.


     


    But he did a great job building the bones of a system that could be fleshed out in ways that don't restrict his successors whlie retaining the core values.


     


    Cook is not afraid of the hard decisions either.


     


    Forstall for example.  The guy was invaluable when steve was with us because he was fiercely loyal to Steve.  but only to Steve.


     


    After Jobs passed on, Scott was only loyal to himself and iOS suffered for it.


     


    He was a pain and had to go. So Cook did the hard thing.  but it was right and it looks like Federighi is really fitting in much more nicely, not only in keynotes (which he far surpasses the awkward-as-all-get-out Forstall), but in terms of fostering an environment where people love creating the worlds best experiences yet again.


     


    Apple is the place to be.


     


    And it is very comforting to know that they have stuck to the simplicity of merely trying to be the best there is at what they do.


     


    And they don't have to lie, cheat, manipulate, bribe, etc.  They simply make the best products in the world and let the chips fall where they may.  sometimes its a multi-year surge in sales, others its less than that, but it's always good because they don't stray from their DNA.

  • Reply 10 of 16
    normmnormm Posts: 653member
    App Annie is an analytics company that makes money by selling statistics about the app market.

    Looking at their website, it seems they get their statistics mainly through having app publishers give them access to their app accounts at Apple, Google, and Amazon. In return for permission to gather anonymized statistics, the publishers get some useful data summaries about their apps (hourly ranking data, country rankings, etc.).

    They claim to have access to over 10% of published apps, which seems like a lot. I would bet, though, that this is mainly larger publishers, and excludes important groups such as internal company apps. So I doubt that App Annie would have good data on total downloads of all apps.
  • Reply 11 of 16
    froodfrood Posts: 771member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by d4NjvRzf View Post


    I wonder how many of those one million Google Play apps are wallpaper packages.



     


    54

  • Reply 12 of 16

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post





    App Annie is pretty well regarded.


    Says whom?  Cite your sources and real sources, not some get along google gang bs. 

  • Reply 13 of 16
    froodfrood Posts: 771member


    Sounds about par for the course.


     


    Google passes another long standing metric Apple used to have the lead in....


     


    Time to change the metric!


     


    The new metric is App store revenue!  Not number of apps, or number of downloads, but how much we can get our users to pay!


     


    Until Google passes that too, then it will be 'invalid questionable data from unreliable sources'  =p


     


     


    Apple has a ton of great products and an army of satisfied users.   Good enough!

  • Reply 14 of 16
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    Says whom?  Cite your sources and real sources, not some get along google gang bs. 

    If you were a developer than you'd already know. ;). There's long-time Apple folks here that would vouch for them as a reliable source for app statistics.
  • Reply 15 of 16
    icoco3icoco3 Posts: 1,474member


    • Apple just "is"


    • Google needs to constantly call attention to itself. (can throw Samsung in this category as well)


     



    • Apple was after 1% of the market (humble) and exceeded it.


    • Google said "Do No Evil" and became that which they condemned.


     


    Those that are have been truly great down through history never saw themselves that way and just went on to accomplish many great things.  Contrast that to those that need to constantly yell "Look at me!!"

  • Reply 16 of 16

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gatorguy View Post





    If you were a developer than you'd already know. image. There's long-time Apple folks here that would vouch for them as a reliable source for app statistics.


    Neat

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