Study: In-game transactions account for 72% of iPhone app revenue
At the Verizon Developer Community Conference in Las Vegas, Hendrik Koekkoek of Distimo, a firm that monitors app stores, spoke about iPhone revenue. According to his research firm, most app revenue doesn't come from direct sales -- it comes from in-game micro-transactions.
The number of free apps on the App store has grown by 34 percent since last year, while paid apps have only grown by seven percent, he estimates. The real money's with in-game purchases, he says, with 48 percent of total revenue coming from in-app transactions of free titles. 24 percent comes from in-app purchases of paid titles, leaving 28 percent of iOS revenue to straight-up paid apps.
Of course, this is all an estimate: Apple certainly won't divulge exact revenue information, though if we're going to say any person's opinion carries weight, it's gotta be the guy's whose job it is to monitor App store revenue, right?
