Google's app store outperformed the sales growth of Apple's App Store over the past several months, but the latter still generates the most revenue, as well as profit.
During the last four months, the Google Play store for Android enjoyed a daily sales jump of 43 percent across 20 countries, according to figures measured by analytics provider Distimo.
Comparatively, sales growth for Apple's App Store increased by 21 percent on a daily basis. However, during January, the App Store's daily sales growth stood at 51 percent.
That said, daily revenue values in the App Store were already considerably higher than the revenue generated by Google Play. Distimo said that on an average day in November, the sales in the App Store surpassed $15 million. Google Play, meanwhile, settled for just under $3.5 million.
The United States was the largest market for overall app sales in 2012, which was followed by Japan, the UK and Australia. Google Play in particular saw the U.S. and Japan being the two largest regions for sales, followed by Korea.
Distimo added that a large number of apps available at both the App Store and Google Play made it increasingly difficult for users to discover new apps, subsequently hurting developers aiming to become successful commercially.
In November, seven apps accounted for 10 percent of all sales for the App Store for the iPhone, which was 11 apps back in January. 31 apps generated 10 percent of all free apps downloaded.
Ultimately, Android's revenue for apps has risen by 311 percent since January and 17.9 percent in November. However, iOS apps are four times more profitable than its rival.
Damn near everything in the Apple store you have to pay for.
You need a credit card just to be able to use it, it makes it more tempting to purchase things when Apple already has their tendrils 3 feet deep into your wallet.
You don't need a credit card to use GooglePlay. There are so many free, trial and demo apps unless you've got a great product head and shoulders above the rest people will just turn to an equivalent free app that runs just as good.
guys, calm down, relax, breathe deeply... just click back to Toms homepage and swear to yourselves that you won't click another Apple-related news story!
Damn near everything in the Apple store you have to pay for.
You need a credit card just to be able to use it, it makes it more tempting to purchase things when Apple already has their tendrils 3 feet deep into your wallet.
You don't need a credit card to use GooglePlay. There are so many free, trial and demo apps unless you've got a great product head and shoulders above the rest people will just turn to an equivalent free app that runs just as good.
or crap is just more expansive on the crap store
1. lots of free, useful apps on Google Play
2. lots of Android phones in the hands of people who know or care nothing about apps. I'm an Android user, but I use my phone mostly for basic/quick web browsing, Google Maps, calls and reading email. I have some flashlight app installed and that's it.
Translation: stop reporting things I don't like, or else...
If Tomshardware started to charge for its "app" most Android users would simply use the web browser to go to a site while most Apple users would pay since they wouldn't know how or assume it's the only way.
Yah like $0.99 versus $0.99....
Basically Android is used in more developing countries where the likely hood of paid apps less.
Android has always been easier to pirate apps even without rooting.
Both have plenty of free apps, but App Store gift cards are also somewhat popular gifts for birthdays and christmas, don't see Google Play gift cards in stores.
And yet your username is the same as Eric Schmidt's announcement that Android is "winning the war" because they have higher marketshare.
Hypocrite.
It's because the type of devices in use are superior on iOS. While Android users love to brag about the GS3 or Note 2 the fact is that most Android devices being sold around the world are low-end pieces of junk. You can still buy brand-new Android phones with slow processors and 2.8" 240x320 screens running version 2.2 or 2.3 of Android. No developer wants to waste time coding for this crap.
This is why Samsung (and Google) don't break down their numbers by device. It looks great to talk about how many devices are being activated per day, but that suddenly doesn't look good if most of them are junk. Samsung loves to report total sales and tout the success of the GS3/Note, but if you look at their financials and take their total smartphone sales and divide it into their revenue you see their average cost-per-device is low (meaning they sell a lot of cheap phones for every GS3 they sell).
Stop posting irrelevant 'news' related to ios/android already..
Umm, what? The quality of an iPhone is just fine. I've been using one for over a year now and even today it has a good battery life, is fast and responsive, high quality screen, high quality touch, and does what I want of it (text/internet/etc).
It does have its downsides, it isn't customizable, no microSD slot, stuck with 16 gigs forever. Can't "sync" this damn thing with my laptop, only my main computer (Fixed by using a 3rd part program).
I've used other touchscreen phones and aside from the interface lagging behind and being unresponsive half the damn time, the touchscreen wasn't as responsive. I couldn't type fast because the damn thing couldn't keep up.
I'm sure the Galaxy S3 is an amazing phone and i'd love to own one right now, but i'm on a contract and this phone is fine.
Do people actually own an iphone and check out the app store before talking? Or do you guys just assume its the worst thing in the world before even trying it? "OMG the majority like the iphone, its stupid, they're stupid, i don't wanna conform, everyones stupid but me"
/sigh.
Some people man. Who needs religion when you have Apple and Samsung.
Hit the nail in the coffin! This type of analysis and market understanding is above the heads of the Android fanboys on this site.
1. There's more free apps than paid apps, so you're wrong about that
2. You DO NOT need a credit card to access and download from the Apps Store, so you're wrong about that
This story isn't a Apple only story fool. And read what ToS about the free apps? You mean the permissions? Too bad I look to see if that app has a reason for that permission before downloading it.
Get a clue.