According to a new report out of app analytics company App Annie, Apple’s trend of bringing in more revenue via its App Store than Google does via the Play Store continued in 2015. Google, however, continued to see far more app downloads than Apple…
The report claims that Google saw twice as many apps downloaded from the Play Store as Apple saw downloaded from the App Store. This, however, is reversed when it comes to earnings from each respective app store. The iOS App Store now earns 75 percent more revenue than the Google Play Store. This is an increase over the 70 percent difference recorded during 2014.
App Annie tracks data from “more than 1 million apps,” including 94 of the top 100 app publishers across both platforms. For iOS, however, it is unable to track apps made by Apple, such as GarageBand, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and iTunes U. This means that the number of apps downloaded from the iOS App Store is presumably higher than what App Annie reports, suggesting that there’s not quite a 2x difference between iOS and Android app downloads.
Another discrepancy in data reporting comes in China. App Annie is able to track iOS app downloads in China, but not Google. With that in mind, App Annie claims that China is now the App Store’s third largest market in terms of revenue and is “within striking distance” of passing Japan for second place. In terms of downloads, China has surpassed the U.S. to move into first place.
Last week, a report claimed that games in the App Store brought in $1 billion in revenue during December, an 18 percent increase of the $847 million brought in during December of 2014. The morale of the story here? Apple continues to bring in far more revenue via the App Store than Google does via the Play Store, despite Google seeing far more downloads overall.
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I’ve only spent maybe $15 since owning my iPhone 6s. But in November 2014 I received a $50 Android gift card and I still have $17 on it. Not sure what to make of that.
It means that relatively you spend less on Android apps than on iPhone apps. 6s was released 4 months and 12 days ago, spending $15. You spend $33 on Android. That would be 20 cents for iOS per day, and ≈ 7 cents for Android.
I spend about $50-$100 a month on iOS apps a month for the past 3 months and over $1000 total since 2012, while I’ve spent about $50 total on Android apps. And the sad thing is I spent that $50 on Android this month (got my Fire Tablet for Xmas). Most Android users haven’t spent that since they got their first Android device.
Just proves the point that having more devices doesn’t equate to being better. Sometimes more is just more.
Google’s ad revenue far surpasses Apple’s ad revenue. Point being ad dollars are at the core of Google’s business model not the play store nor sales from Google devices.
— “Google’s ad revenue far surpasses Apple’s ad revenue. Point being ad dollars are at the core of Google’s business model not the play store nor sales from Google devices.”
And Apple’s hardware revenue far surpasses Google’s hardware revenue.
But that’s not what we’re talking about right now.
This article is Apple App Store versus Google Play Store. That’s what they’re comparing.
Yes Mike I know what you are talking about. My point is the comparison is a self-serving and is meaningless when you consider each company primary goals and objectives.
I actually thougt that apple would see an annually decrease in app downloads. There should be more devices out there every year.
Any developers their know how this is possible? Do the average person download less apps, every year?
More people buy iPhones lead to more people interested in downloading apps. More people upgrade their phones yearly than android people means more people download the same apps they have again.
No need, the applications you download are pushed back to the device once you upgrade it. No redownloading it. Once you pay for it, that’s it.
I remember hearing comments that Android would eventually surpass iOS in terms of revenue because their market share would dwarf Apples by so much. For example, Apple might earn 50% more revenue per user but of Android has 10x the users it doesn’t matter. The numbers mentioned here, however, show how screwed it really is. I suppose because of th number of low end Android devices one might use as a feature phone. You’re not going to buy a high end app or game unless you’ve got a really decent bit of hardware.
And the type of customer of an apple product is very different than an android device. Why would someone who only gets free phones care about spending $2 on an app?
I think it will be very interesting see what happens to this difference when google officially brings the Play Store back to China.
This is just common sense. In general people who have more money to spend, spend more money. People who can afford a $650 smartphone also have more money to spend on apps and games than smartphone users who can only afford a $200 smartphone. And no matter what Android users wanna believe, the only reason Android has more users than iOS is because the majority of Android users have budget phones. If you only count flagship devices ($500 and up off contract) Android is far behind iOS in sales and this is why there is such a difference in revenue between iOS and Android. And the reason the number has went up and not decreased is more is because there are far more flagship Android users (the ones who actually spend money on apps/games) are leaving Android for iOS than iOS users leaving for Android. At this pace iOS will make up 80-85% of revenue by end of 2017. But on the bright side for Android users is Android will continue pulling away from iOS in total percent of users and will keep increasing the download total. Thanks to more and more budget Android users.
The fact that China is the 3rd biggest userbase and they are unable to track Googles store downloads….. that means a very large chunk of data is missing from this report. Thats like saying the US data is missing.
Plus most apps are free on Google Play or heavily discounted because Google allows more freedom on in-app advertising. Angry Birds has always been free but was like $1.99 on iOS. We have a lot of Free Versions with ads and Pro/Donate Versions without ads.
With the huge china market information missing and the lack of acknowledgement of how each Googles store differs from Apples… this article is sorely inaccurate.
Don’t you know the reason being of they are unable to track Googles store downloads in China is China has banned Google service and they don’t even have Google Play installed on their Android phone? What is the point of tracking Googles store downloads in China?
Great post thanks for share this.
You have a problem you are not counting on. There is NOT Google Play store in China. Google is banned in China, so is YouTube and Facebook. They banned years ago Google after they refused to eliminate from searches mentions toTianamen Square. The only way to access Google Play is with a proxy to fool the goverment. In order to download and install something in your Android in China you have to hack your phone, download the file somewhere on the internet, and manually install it. Most people will NOT do it. Thats why if you walk in China they all have iPhones and they easily download files. There is not Google Play in China, is banned in the country. Even if numbers are presented, they will be very low. I said this as someone who travels to China often and I’m surprised how strong Apple is in China. Cheers.