Mobile analytics and industry-tracking firm App Annie recently released a report for the third quarter of 2015. It revealed that Apple’s earning from the App Store was 80 percent more than that of Google from its Play Store during the aforementioned time period.
In terms of revenue generated from apps, Apple took a whopping 70% lead in the second quarter which has been upped by 10 percentage points in Q3. United States, Japan and China are the top three countries to contribute to revenue generation by apps for Apple App Store in the third quarter of 2015.
Although Google Play Store saw more number of downloads for its apps, the App Store surmounted Pay Store in the revenue generation from the apps downloaded. In the quarter encompassing the months from July to September, Google witnessed 90% more app downloads as compared to iOS apps. This was a reassuring rise from the 85% difference in the previous quarter.
One of the reasons that contributed to the difference in growth between the two tech giants in terms of global indexed revenue growth from apps is that Apple’s introduction of the big screen smartphones has attracted several Chinese users. The launch of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has gained immense popularity rapidly. Since more number of users are buying the new phones, the revenue generation has gone up significantly.
The App Store has seen maximum revenue generation from games and social video apps. Games like The King of Fighters’ 98 Ultimate Match, Tencent’s The Legend of Mir 2 and NetEase’ Fantasy Westward Journey are among the apps being downloaded by users and that contribute to a substantial volume of income for Apple. The video apps: iCast Show, which is a Dubsmash-like lip syncing app, Miao Pai, which is a Vine-like app and taxi booking app Didi Dache are also instrumental in increasing the cash flow for the Cupertino firm.
Another reason for the gap in revenue growth is suspected to be the ban of Google Play Store in China; while the App Store is permitted to operate in the nation. This has had a significant impact on the number of users and number of downloads in turn affecting revue generation. It has been reported that in February this year, Apple comprised 27.6 percent of the Chinese smartphone market. The situation may reverse when Play Store will be unbanned from the country in the near future.
The third reason contributing to the rise in revenue growth for Apple seems to be the type of customers and regions it caters to. While on one hand Google targets developing nations and emerging markets like India (which is the third largest market for download of Android apps), Indonesia, Brazil and Vietnam; Apple, on the other hand, focuses on users who are ready to pay a premium for its products and apps along with making in-app purchases.
Google has captured the Indian market owing to its low-cost phones and free download apps which include social networking ones like Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter; and security and sharing apps like 360 Mobile Security and SHAREit respectively. Smaller, more developed nations like Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are found to be generating more revenue for Google Play Store. However, United Kingdom is the only country to have its name in the top-five chart for total downloads along with revenue generation for iOS apps.
Due to higher prospects of revenue growth for iOS since users are more likely to make in-app purchases, developers are preferring it over Android. However, the large consumer base for Android evident from the high number of downloads is attracting Microsoft and Facebook to make it a leading mobile platform for them. App Annie has advised the developers to focus on the lower-end of the market to fight competition.
