APP STORE SIZES
2011 has been a turbulent year for mobile app stores. Nearly all stores showed impressive growth, and all stores (with the exception of the Apple App Store for iPhone) have at least doubled in size over the course of 2011. Combined, the stores have over one million apps (not necessarily unique) currently available –when the Apple App Store for iPad and the Apple App Store for iPhone are viewed as two separate stores. The developments are quite interesting in particular for Microsoft who ran two stores this year: one store for the old Windows Mobile 6.x devices, and a new store for Windows Phone 7 devices that launched in November 2010. The old store for Windows Mobile 6.x devices never saw more than 2,500 available apps, and it was not possible to add any new apps after July 15, 2011. The new store for Windows Phone 7 devices grew by more than 400% during 2011 to 35,269 total apps available for download by the end of November 2011.The order of the stores in terms of available apps remained the same across all stores,with the exception of BlackBerry App World which is now slightly larger than the NokiaOvi Store in the US.
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FREE APPS
The Google Android Market is now the largest store for free apps, surpassing the Apple App Store for iPhone in June 2011. Windows Phone 7 Marketplace passed BlackBerry App World in terms of free apps just a month prior to that in May.
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GAME APPS
The games category is the single largest app category in most stores, and also generates the most downloads as well. Currently,the three largest stores for games are the Apple App Store for iPhone (79,077 games), the Google Android Market (46,045 games), and the Apple App Store for iPad (28,683 games). The ranking order of these three stores in terms of size has remained the same during 2011.
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PROPORTION OF IPHONE FREE APPS GENERATING REVENUES
There has been a significant rise of in-app purchases (IAP) being utilized as a successful business model. The graph below depicts the share of revenue of the 200 highest grossing iPhone apps that are generated by free apps with IAP (freemium apps). This number was just 29% in January, however it rose to its peak height of 53% in September, and grew steadily month-on-month in the months in between. There was a slight decline during October and November, and the freemium model now generates slightly less than half of all revenue again at 48%.
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PROPORTION OF TOP 200 APPS FOR THE IPAD, IPHONE AND ANDROID GENERATING REVENUES IN NOVEMBER 2011
The success of the freemium model isn’t unique to the Apple App Store for iPhone. Performing the same analysis on the Apple App Store for iPad and the Google Android Market reveals that the freemium model is even more successful on the Google Android Market than it is in the Apple App Store. 65% of the revenue from the highest grossing apps is generated by free apps featuring IAP.
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TOTAL REVENUE GENERATED BY THE TOP 200 GROSSING IPAD, IPHONE AND ANDROID APPS IN NOVEMBER 2011
Despite Android’s growing app market share, the revenue generated in its app store still lags far behind the revenue generated in the Apple App Store. The Apple App Store for iPad generates more than double the revenue of Google Android Market, while the Apple App Store for iPhone generates nearly four times the revenue of Google Android Market.
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MOST DOWNLOADED APP IS ANGRY BIRDS!!
The most downloaded app of 2011 – when looking at the total free and paid download volumes of these matched apps combined – is Angry Birds. Available in all stores except BlackBerry App World, this is the app that generated by far the most downloads in 2011. Facebook is the runner up, with a native app available for all of the major operating systems.
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COMMENTARY: I'm amazed how much more revenues iPhone and iPad apps generate over Android apps, considering that there are more Android phones out in the universe. On the other hand, for some reason, which I could never understand, a higher percentage of iPad and iPhone apps are not free. Jobs has legions of Apple evangelists sold on paying for their apps. Apple mobile device owners do tend to be more affluent than Android owners, so that this clould help to explain why they don't mind paying.
Courtesy of the Distimo App Report for the Year 2011
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