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Major League Baseball fans still favor iOS over Android
Bob Bowman, the president and CEO of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, sat down with Walt Mossberg at the D: Dive into Mobile conference on Tuesday. Among other things, the pair talked about Apple versus Android in the world of Major League Baseball apps. Bowman confirmed that iOS is still the king when it comes to Major League Baseball fans, but the platform has lost some of its users in the past few years. Approximately 70 percent of the current user base is running iOS, down from 80 percent two years ago. Android gained ground on iOS because of the success of Samsung's popular Galaxy phones. "The Samsung phone is quite a good Android phone," Bowman told Mossberg in the AllThingsD interview. User base isn't the only area in which iOS is leading. iOS owners are also outpacing their Android counterparts in revenue. Despite grabbing 30 percent of the user base, Android owners only contribute between 15 to 20 percent of MLB.com's revenue, while iOS owners contribute 80 to 85 percent. Bowman claims iOS owners are more likely to pay for content, including the US$20 subscription to a season's worth of Major League Baseball games. You can find out more about Bowman and MLB.com by watching the entire interview on AllThingsD's website.
MLB.com CEO Bob Bowman talks about selling content on the iPhone
Major League Baseball Advanced Media is one of the most powerful developers on the App Store -- every spring, when the new version of the MLB app arrives, the company picks up a sizable chunk of income just from the mobile app, not to mention the subscription service that fuels the live game streaming. Bob Bowman runs the company, and All Things Digital has a nice long interview with him about the app market and how Major League Baseball has taken advantage of mobile. Straight off the bat (pun intended, sorry), he says that the company has seen a major difference between Android and iOS users: "The iPhone and iPad user is interested in buying content ... that's one of the reasons they bought the device. The Android buyer is different." That's interesting to hear -- I've heard exactly the opposite from the makers of Pocket Legends, that Android users were more willing to spend in-app money than iOS users. We're likely just talking about two different audiences here rather than different types of handset owners. Bowman also says MLB is "living with" the 30 percent cut from Apple on its subscription income, but hopes that "over time, the margin will fall from 30 percent." That's a hope for a lot of subscription sellers on the App Store, and most of those are much smaller than the base MLB has built-up for itself on iDevices. [via Edible Apple]
