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Google Play may have the downloads, but App Store has the money, honey
Mobile analytics firm App Annie released figures today that show that even though the Google Play Store leads the iOS App Store in mobile application downloads by a whopping 60 percent margin, Apple's digital storefront is still where the money is. Despite lagging in total downloads, revenues generated by the iOS App Store were more than 70 percent higher than those from the Google Play Store. Both stores saw significant growth in 2014, with the App Store generating over $10 billion of revenue - that's 40 percent of the total revenue generated by the App Store since it first came online in mid-2008 - in just one year. App Annie also noted that there are three countries that make up the lion's share of app sales - the United States, Japan, and South Korea. And the numbers also showed that males are more likely than females to download games, while females do most of the downloading of social networkng and photo/video apps. The company's data is scoured from analytic code included in products from over 90 percent of the top 100 App Store publishers and from more than 700,000 applications.
Report: Freemium leads the charge among mobile devs, in-app ads on the rise
The "freemium" revenue model is currently the top monetization strategy for mobile developers, but in-app advertising is expected to grow in prominence over the next several years, according to a new report from mobile revenue analytics company App Annie (via VentureBeat). App Annie found that over 83 percent of the top 1,000 apps in the iTunes App Store and Google Play currently take the freemium approach to monetization. The survey additionally found that 92 percent of all revenue earned among its 2,000 surveyed developers arrived via in-app purchases in free-to-play games. A majority of users in free-to-play games will never make a single in-app purchase, however. 80 percent of App Annie's surveyed developers stated that less than five percent of users spent money within their freemium apps, corroborating earlier reports of low spending rates among players. While 58 percent of surveyed developers do not use advertising in their apps, App Annie predicts that in-app advertising revenue will surpass web-based ad earnings by 2017. Currently, only the top 75th to 90th percentile of developers earn more than $10,000 monthly from ad revenue, though outliers like the recent hit Flappy Bird have the potential to rake in more than $100,000 every month. [Image: App Annie]
Google Play catching up with iOS App Store in volume, trails in revenue
The App Annie Index market report for the first quarter of 2013 is out, showing some fascinating trends. While the Android-centric Google Play app store is seeing continued growth in download volume, the iOS App Store dominates revenues, earning almost 2.6 times the app revenue of Google Play. Almost half of the total iOS downloads were from four countries -- the US, China, United Kingdom and Japan. Not surprisingly, those four countries were also responsible for the most revenue from the iOS App Store, followed by Australia. App Annie analysts noted that games were the big growth driver for the iOS App Store and made up almost 40 percent of downloads in the first quarter. One fascinating trend is that the Photo and Video category moved up to the No. 3 spot during the quarter, leading this blogger to wonder if that trend reflects increased usage of the iPhone as a primary camera. Games were also the top category in the iOS App Store by revenue, followed by Productivity, Social Networking, Education and Entertainment apps. How big are games as a revenue generator for iOS? Almost 70 percent of App Store revenue came from firing birds at pigs and slaying raiding zombies.
Daily Update for February 21, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Consumer spending on mobile games tops that for portable consoles
The market for dedicated portable game consoles from Nintendo and Sony appears to be shrinking due to competition from iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. Data from IDC and App Annie shows that fourth-quarter 2012 consumer spending on game apps from the App Store and Google Play was greater than spending on those portable consoles. In the Portable Gaming Report (PDF), the two companies noted that well over 20 billion games were downloaded across the mobile platforms in 2012, and that over a third of app downloads were games. The report also pointed out a fascinating statistic -- in terms of total consumer spending on games, Nintendo and Apple were almost equal. That Apple could become a major player in gaming in less than five years since the App Store first opened its virtual doors is amazing, particularly when the Nintendo DS and its successors have been around since 2004. One other key comment from the IDC / App Annie report was that purchases of dedicated game consoles appear to be highly seasonal, with 60 percent of spending in the fourth quarter of 2012 being done in December. Game app purchases, on the other hand, don't exhibit the seasonal variability of the dedicated units. [via The Verge]
iOS games make 3.5 times more than Android counterparts
Popular App Store tracker App Annie has released its latest report, and the news is good for iOS developers. Not only is iOS revenue up in general (by about 20% year over year), but it's still about three and a half times higher than Android revenue. Both Apple's App Store and Google Play saw big revenue increases in the latter half of last year, as you can see above, but iOS is still clearly much higher, which is definitely one of the reasons developers are so keen to be on Apple's platform in the first place. It's notable that the top apps on the App Store aren't games at all: Apple and Google are the two top companies with the most downloads on the marketplace, and they don't produce any games at all. But in terms of revenue, games are still the biggest moneymakers on the store, and companies like EA, Zynga, and GREE are definitely picking up plenty of revenue. It's interesting to note that some of the companies on top of the revenue list are still only running one or two games, so as big as the App Store is, any developer out there with a big enough hit still has a chance to make the top revenue list.
