iOS apps still make more money, but Android apps are closing in

Android’s app store has a reputation of having more free apps and games than the iOS store, which is good for consumers, but the iOS store is better known for bringing in more revenue, which is good for developers. According to App Annie that is still true, but the gap is closing.

The analysts at App Annie have taken the two types of paid apps into account – premium apps (you pay for the app) and freemium apps (the app is free, but you can pay for in-game purchases). Freemium apps are the primary revenue generators on both platforms, showing incredible growth.

Worldwide, iOS revenues from freemium apps have quadrupled since the beginning of 2011. Revenues from premium apps have actually shrunk. China is a relatively new market for iOS and revenues are soaring, while the US market experienced a decline.

Meanwhile, revenues from such apps on Android have more than quadrupled worldwide since the beginning of this year, while premium app revenues have barely increased. Japan is showing big growths while the US seems to have stabilized, with focus shifting to freemium apps.

Those charts show indexed revenues with 100% set at the freemium app revenues for the first month that App Annie has data for on the given platform, which means they are not directly comparable.

However, an older infographic by them (humorously titled “Game of Phones”) shows that iOS is getting 71% of the combined revenues from apps compared to 29% for Android. This is calculated with data from April and the current combined iOS revenues are virtually identical to their April values, while combined Android revenues have nearly doubled.

You can check out Tech-thoughts, who have taken the time to go over reports from different analysts and estimate app revenues for both platforms.

Source | Via