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Daily Update for December 18, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some of 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 player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Fun App Store facts from Distimo's 2013 Year in Review
If you're too busy with last-minute holiday shopping to pore over Distimo's all-encompassing year-end App Store breakdown, we've got a handy list of the most interesting takeaways. Let's get to it! The percentage of overall App Store revenue generated by free apps with in-app purchases increased from 77 percent to 92 percent from January to November. About 90 percent of revenue generated from games came from free-to-play titles, while just 8 percent came from paid apps. Two of the top three free apps come from Google (YouTube at No. 2, and Google Maps at No. 3), making Google the most downloaded publisher in the App Store. Candy Crush Saga was the most downloaded app in 2013. More people downloaded Despicable Me: Minion Rush than downloaded Facebook this year. Eight of the top 10 paid apps were games, but the No. 1 overall paid download was a messaging app (WhatsApp Messenger). Clash of Clans managed to make more money this year than Candy Crush Saga. Disney was the top paid app publisher, with Temple Run: Oz leading the charge. People still love apps. A lot.* *This is the biggest takeaway.
App Store's revenue grew 15% between February and July
The analytics wizards at Distimo have released their July report on mobile trends, this time comparing the top apps for the App Store, Google Play and Amazon's Appstore for Android. Tucked away in their findings, however, is an interesting look at how Apple's App Store for iOS has grown in the last six months. Between February and July of 2013 the App Store grew by 15 percent while Google Play saw its own store grow by 67 percent. While the discrepancy between each store's growth rate may seem unfavorable for Apple, it's important to point out the App Store still generated more than twice as much revenue as Google Play during that same period. (It's easier to grow by big percentages from a smaller base, in other words.) The app that generated the most revenue globally, Candy Crush Saga, was the same for each company, meaning that regardless of what kind of smartphone your friends are working with, you're probably being asked for candy assistance on Facebook at this given moment. Interestingly, none of the normally paid apps that were offered for free as part of Apple's App Store 5th Anniversary sale made it into July's top five free paid apps. BADLAND came close, but was unable to move past number six on the charts. The next closest anniversary sale title to chart in the Top 10 was Infinity Blade II, at number nine. Worldwide, the United States spends the most money on apps, followed by Japan and South Korea, which account for a majority of the growth Google Play's store enjoyed during the six-month period.
iPhone apps need to make $47K to reach the top 10 paid apps chart
Distimo, a source for online app analytics, has released their June report covering the month of May. This time, they take a look at what exactly it takes for an app to make it to the top chart positions in different app stores. The research report provided to TUAW Friday showed that to reach the top 10 paid apps on the iOS store, an app needs 4,000 downloads per day, while earning a spot on the top grossing charts needs $47,000 per day. The amount of profit an app needs to bring in to stay in the top 50 paid apps differs greatly, with apps ranked around the number 50 spot averaging $12,000 a day. To earn a spot on the top 10 free downloads chart, apps averaged 72,000 downloads per day on iOS, while apps in the top 50 only required 23,000 downloads each day during May. Of course there are more factors than just strong sales numbers to make it to the top of the charts; sometimes it's just a matter of a slow downloading day. The study found that Thursday was the easiest day to reach the top of the charts because it's the slowest day for downloads on the app store. Saturdays were the hardest, presumably because people tend to use the weekend downtime to check out new apps. The company's May report looked at the difference in revenue between Google Play and the iTunes stores. You can find our reporting on those numbers here.
App downloads spike over the holiday, though not as high as expected
The Christmas holiday saw a record number of iOS device activations, and as usual, a nice spike in app downloads for developers (thanks to all of those new devices on the market). But Distimo just shared a report that says Christmas might not have been as merry as we thought for app developers this year. While iPhone app sales and downloads did spike, up to 87 percent above the average for December, that spike is nothing compared to last year's 230 percent spike. In other words, the trend of big sales around the holiday season appears to be leveling off just a bit. The iPad fared slightly better, with downloads seeing a 140 percent spike. That's sizable (and it speaks to how popular the iPad mini especially has been this holiday season), but it's not the kind of jump we saw just a few years ago, when all of this holiday commotion started. So what does this all mean for the big picture? I suspect it means that we might not see developers quite so eager to go for big holiday sales in the next year -- there were some incredibly huge sales in the past few weeks, and those were put in place partly because developers expected this big spike in downloads. But if the spike isn't as big, devs might be more convinced to hold to their standard prices, or try other tactics to drum up sales over the holiday season. This trend of big sales and spikes over the Christmas holiday has been growing for a few years now, but this is the first sign we've seen that it may be heading in the other direction. [via BGR]
Daily Update for December 21, 2011
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.
Report suggests App Store growing rapidly in China
It's no secret that Apple has big plans for China. During several of the past quarterly earnings calls, CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer have made repeated references to both past growth and future plans for the nation. Now a report from app market research firm Distimo [via GigaOM] indicates that the App Store for iPhone in China is growing rapidly. In the report, compiled by Distimo analyst Hendrik Koekkoek, he notes that the Apple App Store for iPhone in China generated only 18 percent of the downloads of the combined US and China stores in January of 2011. By November, that number had jumped to 30 percent. Even more amazing are the numbers for iPad apps. As of November of 2011, the number of downloads from the Apple App Store for iPad was almost identical for the US and China. A summary of the Distimo report is available (PDF download), containing information about all of the various app stores for different mobile platforms.
iPhone app downloads stuttering in the US, but still gold compared to Android
At some point, we'll all have to stop binging on discounted apps and start being reflective -- and that's when Distimo's 2011 'App Year in Review' report can serve as a nice digestive. Alongside some predictable trends, such as an impressive 400 percent surge in available Windows Phone apps, it also reveals a few interesting stats about the market leader. iPhone app downloads in the US "have been declining for nearly the entire year," it says, although there was big spike following the launch of the 4S. Regardless of volume, however, top-grossing iPhone apps still made four times as much money as the Android Market's premium performers. By the same measure, even iPad apps on their own generated twice as many dollars. Is this a tale of quality over quantity, or are Android apps simply better value? We'll decide when we're less queasy, and in the meantime there's a fuller summary of the report at the source link -- though you'll have to register to view it.
Report: In-app purchases a strong source of iOS app revenue
iOS app developers who are looking to make big bucks on the App Store should consider using the in-app purchase model, according to a recently published study from Distimo. In-app purchases are a huge source of revenue, accounting for a whopping 72 percent of all App Store revenues. That number has increased drastically from July of 2010, when only 28 percent of App Store revenues came from in-app purchases. What's even more surprising is that only four percent of all apps are currently using the in-app purchase model. This all points to a trend of freemium apps dominating the App Store. These, of course, are apps that are free to download and try out, but require an in-app purchase to supply full functionality. Freemium apps made up the majority of the revenue -- 48 percent, or nearly half of all App Store earnings. Many of these apps are games, but comic apps are also starting to create an impact. TUAW would like to know what your favorite purchase model is -- a one-time purchase that gives you unlimited upgrades and full functionality, or a free download with in-app purchases. Answer our poll below, and if you feel compelled to provide a longer answer, do so in the comments. %Poll-69266%
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?
Report indicates iOS users stick with platform due to 'lock-in effect'
Citing a report from research2guidance, GigaOM notes that Apple's market share of app downloads reversed the backward slide that began in 2009 and recently increased by 2 percent. This is a far cry from the doom n' gloom predictions many pundits have been espousing for Apple's platform, and it shows that Google's Android Marketplace still has a long way to go before unseating Apple's App Store. The report speculates that a "lock-in effect" is partially responsible for users sticking with Apple's platform. iOS users, whether they're iPhone, iPod touch or iPad owners, tend to download a large number of apps, with a fairly high percentage of those apps being paid versions. The higher number of paid apps a user downloads, the more likely it is that user will stick with the same platform. This makes perfect sense; if you're like me and you've got a couple hundred bucks worth of apps on your various devices, that's a lot of inertia to overcome if you decide you want to switch platforms. When you flip it around and look at things from the Android perspective, things don't look as rosy. GigaOM recently cited research from Distimo that showed paid downloads represent a truly minuscule proportion of total app downloads from the Android Market. 79.3 percent of paid apps on the Android platform have been downloaded less than 100 times, and only 4.6 percent of paid apps were downloaded more than 1000 times. A 2010 Distimo report (again cited from GigaOM) noted that Android users download a disproportionately large number of free apps compared to the iOS platform, and that trend doesn't appear to be reversing. The end result is that for all we hear from various tech pundits about Android's ascending smartphone market share being the only metric that matters, other numbers are showing that not only are users more likely to stick with iOS due to app 'lock-in,' Apple's App Store also remains a more attractive market for app developers who actually want to make money with paid apps. CNNMoney's analysis of the same Distimo report paints a very stark picture: of 72,000 paid apps on the Android platform, only two have sold more than 500,000 (but less than one million) copies over the history of the platform. Contrast that with six paid applications generating 500,000 or more downloads just in the US version of the iPhone's App Store in March and April alone. How many paid apps have you downloaded for your iOS device, and do you consider that an impediment to switching platforms? Let us know in the comments.
Shocker! Free Android apps outnumber free iPhone apps
Good news for Android users who hate paying for stuff: according to new numbers from Netherlands-based mobile analytics group Distimo, there are now more free apps available for Google's mobile OS than the iPhone, at 134,342 to 121,845. There are a few things to consider here: first, when one adds free iPad-only apps, the total number of gratis iOS apps increases to a more competitive 132,239. And then there's Apple's sometimes rigorous vetting process, which has probably played a role in its numeric slippage -- after all, this report doesn't highlight things like legality, repetition, or the overall number of apps dedicated to making farting noises. Also, Apple has a lot more premium apps, giving it the overall lead at 333,124 to 206,143 -- but between Android's rapid growth and what the report terms iOS's relative stagnation, Distimo expects Google to take the top spot in five months' time, outnumbering iPhone and iPad apps combined -- a rough scenario for Cupertino to stomach, no doubt, but at least the company will still have Windows Phone to kick around a while longer. [Source link requires registration]
Distimo finds higher prices, slower growth in the Mac App Store
Distimo has released its latest publication, containing an overview of the various app stores currently running, and the findings about the Mac App Store are quite interesting. While Apple's newest App Store is not quite up to the speed of the mobile platform, it's growing quickly -- the average top 300 Mac application generates roughly half the revenue of a top 300 iPad app. And there are other encouraging stats: the Mac App Store's average price (US$11.21) is by far the highest of the three stores, with the iPhone down at $1.57 and the iPad at $4.19. Two months after launch, the Mac App Store has 2,225 applications, which is fewer than the iPad's 8,099 applications at the same point in its cycle, but don't forget that the iPad already had the iPhone app market pushing it on right away at launch. Other interesting stats: the Mac App Store consists of 29 percent games, and in the most popular applications, 39 percent are games, which flies in the face of conventional wisdom that says there's no market for games on the Mac. Only 12 percent of the apps on the Mac App Store are free -- less than any other Apple platform. Finally, and perhaps most interesting, 17 percent of the developers of the top 300 apps on Apple platforms do publish their apps in more than one app store, either in Mac and iOS or on another platform. That means Apple's top developers are reaching out to other platforms -- but only 17 percent of them. For the other side, more than 80 percent of Apple's top developers, the Apple platform is the only one they're releasing their apps on. You can download the whole report over on Distimo's site.
Paid apps do better in the charts than free ones
Recently, we've seen a big trend of apps on the App Store going free because free apps tend to garner more attention and downloads (and in-app purchases mean that there's still a possibility of making a profit down the line). However, it turns out that there is one benefit of sticking with a paid app: they stay on the top of the charts for a longer period of time. Data (provided by a company called Distimo) for the month of May in the App Store shows that paid apps are "stickier" on the App Store charts; while free apps only lasted a little over a week, some paid apps stayed on the top of the charts for over a hundred days. Why is this? My guess is that it involves something that we've heard a lot of talk about, which is that the habits of paying customers are different from those of "free app" customers. Customers who pay for apps are more likely to leave thoughtful reviews and spread the word about a worthwhile app, both of which will extend the time that an app is popular. Customers who use a lot of free apps tend to buy and dispose of apps quickly, while customers who pay are more likely to find the ones they like and stick with them for a while. After all of the big news about free apps, it's interesting to hear that there are still reasons to stick with paid. As the App Store continues to develop, there are multiple working models for software sales unfolding.
Average iPad app price is $1 more than iPhone apps
Here's some more interesting stats about app pricing. We've heard pricing average stats before, including that the average app price seems to be hovering right around three dollars. But a firm in the Netherlands has done some more research into current iPad and iPhone app prices, and discovered that while iPhone apps average out at $3.87 (slightly higher than most estimates, but still in that $3 range), iPad apps are actually hitting an average of $4.67, almost a dollar more than iPhone versions. That's both good and bad news for developers -- while it does mean that iPad apps are releasing and selling at higher prices (something most developers believe should be the case, given the amount of work and design that goes into iPad apps versus their smaller-screen cousins), those prices aren't that much higher. Apple specifically priced their iPad apps at $9.99 after selling their iPhone game at $4.99, and if they wanted that to be the early standard for the iPad, it doesn't quite appear the plan is working out. Still, an extra buck is better than nothing, and as always, developers should sell their apps for what they think they're worth anyway. The firm, Distimo, also says that 80% of iPad apps are paid (compared to the iPhone's 73%), and medical and financial applications are the most expensive, averaging out at $42.11 and $18.48, way higher than the iPhone's $10.74 and $5.74 averages for the same categories. So while the prices may differ, there's no questions that developers are charging more (and getting more) for applications on the iPad.
