Apple’s App Store is Where the Money is for Developers
The Android Marketplace has experienced a large amount of growth over the past few months, with over 295,000 apps and six billion app downloads. Mobile developers are drawn to the platform because of its range of devices and its open-source nature.
In fact, Android dominates mobile marketshare in terms of devices sold. For every two iPhones sold, approximately five Android phones are purchased. That also equates to a significant number of app downloads, but despite Android’s success, the platform is still behind Apple on mobile dollars earned via the Marketplace and the App Store.
According to a new report from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who analyzed the mobile app market, Google’s Android Marketplace has only generated seven percent of the total gross revenue that Apple’s App Store has brought in. Apple has approximately 85 to 90 percent of the market share of total dollars spent on apps.
This is because there are simply more apps in Apple’s App Store, and because a larger portion of those apps are pay-to-download. Just 1.3 percent of Android apps are paid apps, while 13.5 percent of iPhone apps are paid.
Thanks to the App Store’s success, Apple developers have earned 3.4 billion dollars in 2011, while Google developers have earned less than $240 million. From these numbers, Jaffray predicts that the Android Marketplace will continue to grow at a faster pace, but that Apple will maintain a 70 percent or more share of mobile app dollars spent over the next three or four years.
[via CNN]
