According to a report from app watchers Distimo, Android developers are struggling to convert their apps into serious revenue raisers, compared to those creating software for iOS. With Android overtaking Apple in terms of handsets, you have to ask yourself, “why is that?”
Fortunately, the report explains the discrepancy. Among its major findings:
The refresh rate of top application charts is significantly higher in the Apple App Store for iPhone than in the Google Andoid Market. During the month of April, there were 94 distinct applications with a top 10 (free or paid) position in the Apple App Store for iPhone in the US; there were only 26 distinct applications that reached a top 10 position in the Google Android Market.
And:
It is more challenging for developers in the Google Android Market than in the Apple App Store to monetize using a one-off fee monetization model. We found that only two paid applications have been downloaded more than half a million times in the Google Android Market worldwide to date, while six paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPhone generate the same number of downloads within a two month timeframe in the United States alone.
This is a indicative of a fairly major problem with Android – the Marketplace. While there are plenty of ways to discover new apps on iOS, the Android marketplace seems to be filled with crappy soundboards and wallpaper widgets, regardless of your search query. If that isn’t bad enough for the consumer, it’s also problematic for developers hoping to cut their teeth in the potential of the Android marketplace.
Considering that the Distimo report claims that 79.3% of paid apps have been downloaded less than 100 times, it’s a positively disastrous place for the Google operating system to be in.Google hopes that the introduction of in-app purchases could help turn things around, but ultimately what is needed is a far better Marketplace. The launch of an browser version helps, but it is only the first step. Android needs a faster, bigger and more robust app discovery mechanism if it is going to entice developers to create great applications for the platform.
[Distimo]
James Barch
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:37 PMI think that you will find that android users dont pay for apps because they are not idiots – they download free apps that someone has made because they love making apps, not money.
that is the difference between the windows / android market and the iOS market – the iOS market is all about $ while the other two are about having a good experience and fun.
BenDTU
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:45 PMI don’t think you can really use the terms “Android” and “Good user experience” in the same sentence.
James Barch
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:19 PMbefore i came into the office everyone had iPhones, after 1 year here i have convinced everyone to get an android (21 out of 22 people have an android now) – they are all happy with it.
I have since gotten a windows 7 phone and am convincing people to come over (3 of 22 so far :))
Mark
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 12:47 AMWhy would I listen to you if you keep changing your mind?
Tony
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 10:05 AMIt’s because of Android fanboys “ra ra how great android is” that I decided to purchase a Sony S tablet, and my experience is only one of frustration and dissapointment. Android fanboys you suck!!!! Why? Android apps are crap, the force close freeze error on my most frequently used apps is driving me nuts, and where are the quality games that iOS users get to choose from?
ozoneocean
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 5:03 PMUnless the writer suffers from some sort of neurological disconnect or physical incapacitation, I don’t really see an issue.
klaw
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 5:11 PMI think you’re very wrong, heavily biased or blind. And so do a few million other people.
Tim
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 6:57 PMSure you can, its kind of like saying Apple doesnt get virus’s
29Dimensions
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:45 PMCool! Work for the love of work. Who cares about food, clothes, rent and such mundane things.
Where do I sign up?
James Barch
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:17 PMyou sign up to the “hobby” market and “lets see if i can do this” group and if you want to you could stand in with the “I have an idea” crowd.
29Dimensions
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:48 PMAre you doing that? I.e. have you written and published any free apps? I would like to check them out!
Marc
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:56 PMSome people who purchase handsets with Android are looking a free environment, these are the same people who torrent illegal copies of movies and software applications for desktop operating systems.
When consumers pay for any kind software application they respect the work and development that was undertaken, just because they could have sourced an illegal copy of that application doesn’t make them an idiot.
If a consumer doesn’t want to use low end or free apps, currently the Apple app store has the largest offering of innovative applications.
While you may have the makeup of a criminal, a larger portion of the world are interested in enjoying the rewards of hard work and in doing so encourage innovation.
Don
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:11 PMMeh most people who have iPhones still pirate movies, download music illegally etc
And most people who buy iphones and other apple products don’t even realise they are using such a closed and “trapped” environment. They believe that whatever apple decides/states is the norm, just like a flock of sheep following their leader.
James Barch
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:22 PMi think you missed my point – i was not advocating piracy, i was saying that the android market has many free apps because people who like to code ‘for the hell of it’ choose to do so on the android platform, because they know their app will get out there for others to use if they want (unlike the apple app store which checks everything).
this means that alot of the free apps out there are really good because the people who made them have made them out of passion, rather then work – remember, when you are doing something you love you do it better then if your doing it because you have to.
that was my point.
Steve
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:42 PMThe people who use Android are all criminals? Wow. Ignorant and rude in the same post.
What do you think jailbreaking does? It allows IOS users to scab free shit and by what everyone’s suggesting, is very popular.
Being free doesn’t mean bad. Nor does it mean someone else is being screwed. Why pay for Angry Birds if the ad-supported version on Android is free and everyone wins?
29Dimensions
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:51 PMMarc, that’s a bit harsh, isn’t it? Comparing legally “Free” apps with pirating movies?
It’s fair enough not wanting to pay for apps and using the free ones that are legally available. What I object to is the notion that people want to make money from their labour on writing these applications (I know that you object to that too).
29Dimensions
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:53 PMThat came out wrong. What I meant was “I object to the notion that people expect others to give away their apps for free”.
Some people want to make a living from that!
klaw
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 5:06 PMSorry Marc, but that’s just hot air. You’ve just called a few hundred million people pirates, on the sole basis that they don’t pay for free software.
Developers put their apps on the Google Market voluntarily. They don’t just appear there accidentally. The developer gets to choose if they want to offer it for free, or make it paid. You can’t blame users for downloading apps which are legally and morally free of an obligation for payment.
People spend less on Android apps because there are plenty of good apps available for free. This is because of the simple fact that Android and iOS are built on two different philosophies.
Apple is in the game to make money from the sale of hardware and software, and the associated monetised ecosystem.
Google is in the same game, for the sole purpose of generating ad revenue. Google’s services (Gmail, Maps, Picasa etc etc) are all free to use, even for users who don’t buy Google-supported devices. Google gives away the OS for free to anyone who wants to use it.
Cflow
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 6:50 PMI think it’s actually a false comparison to put Apple and Google at odds at all. Sure Google has some free apps, but so does Apple (Uh, hello – iTunes)
Android vs iOS boils down to a simple “first to the marketplace” brand battle really. Android wouldn’t have been a twinkle in Googles eye if Apple hadn’t said hey could do smart phones better, and did, and made a packet of cash.
By offering a product free – when it is unique and special to you the creator – is a choice. Creating for Android instead of iOS just limits the opportunities you have in earning an extra buck.
Good article!
Adrian
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 5:22 PMI have been a windows mobile user for years and a palm user before that both of those platforms have and still do have plety of developers who are happy to create softwarefor free. Much of the free stuff is pretty ordinary to be polite but there is always a core of gems on offer. Android for me seem to be the continuation of this tradition, there will be those who create and share and those who publish as a business model. When I do upgrade I expect I will go to android why because I have a choice write the app my self or choose the app that best suits my needs and it may be out there for free.
Sean
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:38 PMmy theory is that alot of people dont know about the android market…
the reason android is outselling IOS, is because android offers both high, and low end handsets…
alot of the low end users, dont even know they have “android”, nor do they know/care about the market, and installing apps… all they want is “a phone that can make phone calls.”
because there are so many IOS users, and they love to show off their idevices is because they talk to each other so they end up using the apple store more.
brent3000
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:57 PMWhat this guys said…
The amount of people i know who dont even know about the apps available for their phone be it apple or android or WP7 is just amazing…
Funny enough there are people who have phones to make calls and send sms’s not to toss birds around…
Potatoman
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:31 PMYou should also take into account that apps don’t work very well on Androids. Probably due to fragmentation. It’s turned me off Android for life and I’ve recommended to all my friends to never get an Android and they all agree.
ozoneocean
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 5:08 PMThey work perfectly on the two Android devices I own and on friend’s devices as well.
Maybe you had a low-end or out-dated device? You know that’d be the same experience on ANY device with apps if it was an older or less capable model.
Potatoman
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:38 PMI’m using a HTC Desire Z which has a second generation processor and 512 MB RAM and WVGA resolution, the hardware is great but I feel the OS holds it back. Some apps fail to keep in the screen and others just perform so poorly they aren’t worth using, my 2nd Gen iPod Touch can run Reckless Racing better with less than half the power.
Mark
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 12:51 AMYou forgot about the huge amounts of by one get one sales. I paid full price for an Andriod phone, it went on sale for over half off a month later.
Roland
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:38 PMTo summarise – Apple users have more disposable income to blow on apps.
Steve
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:43 PMTell that to the hipsters I talk to who bust their balls off to pay for $100/month iPhone + app contracts.
typedmillepede
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 10:57 AMwhat 100$ per month? that’s an america only deal. i pay 65$ (paid nothing up front for the phone) a month in australia and get the 32 gb one with unlimited texts, enough calls :P, and 1.5gb of data… pretty affordable really.
but then again,
you can get a nexus s in this country for 30 bux a month, with nothing upfront. that almost tempted me with android… but i just like iOS better. it is the happiest of walled gardens :P
vijay
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 2:50 PMwe can sideload apps in android…..but cant in iphone…..
so i preferred android and happy with it
moey
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:03 PMdoes this survey count the number of times a ndev has been paid for their app, or the number of times apple records that app on someone’s phone? Because we all know most people get their paid iOS apps for free.
also, with android, whenever someone makes a paid idea, it gets released by someone else as a free application, just for, as James Barch above said, because they love making apps.
Cflow
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 7:09 PMI totally disagree with your first statement, and so would my bank account. However the survey does not note if there is a separation of unique purchases vs app upgrades.
I know that Angry Birds is a great example of a product that has regular updates and if those figures were not separated they would show spikes in “purchases”.
With regards to your second comment, the same happens with the iOS apps, but there is still a choice and it’s up to the guy with the paid app to make sure his product is worth paying for – same as Android developers. Rarely is a “love coding” guy going to realistic compete with “dollar coding” guy purely because it means more to the “dollar” guy to keep the cash-flow coming in.
Scott
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:06 PMone reason, quite a number of low end android phones don’t have access to the Market.
Another there are huge numbers of developers opting to provide a free (ad-enabled) version of their App and allowing the user the option to pay to remove the ads or add features to the App.
Also with the ease of backing up apps through programs like titanium backup and Astro this allows for users easier access to distribute (pirate) apps on the interwebs and install them as “third party” apps via the backed up APK.
Bigy
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:12 PMA recent report stated that iphone owners had less disposable income than their android counterparts. The reason for the difference is the difficulty in finding decent apps. Google really needs to sort search functions out in the market. Don’t forget also that most smart phone usage is for searching the net.
Dexx
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:13 PMSo, Android also supports a fairly straight forward Ad infrastructure. So it’s a lot easier to make an Application and give it away for free, because the application will continue to make money while it’s used.
A large number of Android applications do this.
This is a very poorly written opinion piece that really doesn’t look at the facts.
Dan
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:17 PMI think the quality of Apps on android are lacking to that of the iOS store. I moved from iPhone to android as I wanted to try something different. As much as I love the galaxy s as a phone and it’s close function to what the iPhone is I hate the android store. It’s just a mess to look through. New apps are not highlighted. When there is a update for a Apps it don’t tell you any new features or fixes.
As I said before, as a phone android is grate, but as a App platform it’s beyond a joke.
Distractobot
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:26 PMThe android store still feels pretty low quality. There are some truly fun games, but just don’t have the overall polish. And they are few and far between.
Spaghetti and Marshmallows
Stupid Zombies
… erm…
TG
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:30 PMyikes! the OVI store is doing better than Android too???
mark
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:38 PMWhen you buy an app for iOS that dials emergency numbers for you, that speaks to the type of person using an iOS device and explains why they sell more apps, ie, dumb people are gullible!
Joshua
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 3:45 PMI reckon it’s because Google is kinda synonymous with ‘free’ Google search , google maps, google sketchup…the list goes on…they are all free services. So android users have this perception that all apps should be free, so they only download the free ones. And developers know this, so there are not as many high quality apps are there are on iOS. Android market needs to adopt a similar approval process to iOS, where they block out all the junk, spammy apps. However, keep the good apps that Apple wouldn’t allow, such as Adfree. However, I don’t know how to fix the problem of a small percentage of paid apps downloaded.
As other people said, people with higher disposable incomes tend to be able to afford apple, and therefore can afford the paid apps.
Jester
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:43 PMWhat about free aps subsidised through ads? I very rarely pay for apps on my nexus 1, but a lot of the free ones have ads so the developers are still getting paid.
Steve
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 4:45 PMPeople spend less on Android because so many official Google services are free.
Why pay $80 for a Tom Tom Turn-by-Turn GPS app on IOS when Google Maps Navigation is better and free?
BenDTU
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:45 PMBecause the Tom-Tom one tells me what lane to be in and doesn’t try and put me down roads that don’t exist.
*has actually happened*
Tim
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 7:01 PMHold on, can you hold the iphone 4 in your left hand yet, without a cover? Or is Steve Jobs still saying they are holding it wrong and that they don’t need multi-touch?
trk
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 7:03 PMPeople spend less on Android, because Android does so much more “out of the box”.
I dont need to buy a special “app” to try and emulate some sort of directory browsing. Full file management is available straight off the bat.
I dont need special apps to tell me where the nearest Dunkin Donuts is, another app for the nearest Bunnings, another app for the nearest bus stop – I just open the core app ‘Places’ and type in what I’m looking for.
I dont need an app to read a tech blog or news source – I just use the core browser app and let the text reflow turn it into a mobile friendly view.
I dont need calendar and agenda apps – Google Calendar handles all this for me.
I dont need a special app to stream a video clip – my device supports Flash.
There’s just so little reason to pay for apps on Android. It already does pretty much everything, and for specific tasks that DO need an app, you can almost guarantee that some neck beard out there has taken up app writing as a hobby and has written one that works just as well as any paid app but completely free.
I’ve never understood why Apple fans are so proud of the fact they are supporting the company that makes the most amount of profit per device. Why on earth is it considered a positive to be getting financially shafted and having to fork over coin every time you turn around?
Des
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 8:44 PM+ 1
Dougal
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:05 PM+1 Too.
It would also be revealing if the top 100 apple apps are of the same entertainment category as fart apps!
Just because people pay for them doesn’t mean they are productive.
Clearly the Android inclusions make this another case of Apple intentionally supplying poor or leaving out functionality, for the purpose of charging you to get what you need by buying either the app to do it or the app to upgrade it.
Bharath Booshan
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 7:16 PMAlso a point to note.
You get an iPod 4G which functions same as iPhone 4, sans Phone capability, but at a very affordable rate at $225 (or INR 10 K)
And do we have a Android device, with same h/w features for a 10K?
dhobbsau
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 8:32 PMMy son has an android phone and an ipod touch. He is not old enough to have a credit card so guess what he buys apps for? The ipod. A lot of kids are now getting smart phones but Apple is the company that has nade it really easy for kids to pay for apps using an itunes card that can be picked up at the local supermarket. It’s not about which platform is better but more about how one company has made it a lot easier for people to spend their money.
Graham
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:24 PMI buy apps on iPhone when they reach the $1 pricepoint (unless its something exceptional).
I also buy itunes cards at a discount when they are on sale (2x$20 for $30 etc)… so once I have purchased the cards I have a mentality that the money is already spent so I should start purchasing the apps at that point, it seems less like you are actually spending money once you have an itunes card in your hand, alsmost as if you are spending monopoly money. Does that make sense?
Does the Android marketplace have a similar gift card system? If not then this could be why sales are slower there.
Thomas
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 8:03 AMAre you guys aware that there are over 300K apps in the App Store but only around 70K for Android. There are over 170K FREE apps in the App Store. iOS users pay for apps because we want them not for any other reason.
Paul B
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 8:53 AMIt would be interesting I think to compare the top selling apps on each platform. There are lots of iOS apps I would love to have on my Android but there is nothing comparable on the market.
Jim
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 9:31 AMFirst off, most Android users are left overs from the freetard arena. These people do not spend money, not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t have it. Most freetards live in their mothers basement still and spend their time fiddling with command line crap. These same people hate iOS because of its locked down environment.
Second, most of the Android apps are crap compared to the same app sold in Apple’s App Store. Developers will not put the time into a fragmented platform. Apple polices their App store and will not allow developers to run rampant with crapware. Android, on the other hand, continues to be bombarded with Fart Apps and the like. The Android Market also makes no distinction between an actual app and a ring tone or wallpaper. I would venture to say that if you removed all the ringtones and wallpaper, you would reduce the market by half.
Third, and this is the most important. Everyone seems to continually forget that Google is an advertisement company. They could care less the quality or price of an app, so long as they have your data. Google wants one thing and one thing only, your data and your eyes. Android users seem to not realize they have sold themsevles out to advertisers like a cheap whore. Yes, Android is OPEN, it is open to advertisers and it is your data that is open to them. Remember folks, if its free, its because you are the product being sold.
PHuZZy
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 1:08 PMAndroid users would rather Root their device and install hacked and stolen apps as they are too tight to spend a couple of dollars to help the developers.
They all want it OPEN and FREE………..
boc
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 4:25 PMWhat’s with all the Android hate?
I’ve got about 20 apps installed on my Desire. Two of those I paid upfront for; about ten of those are supported by ads; the rest are free.
This fulfills my smartphone needs. Or am I supposed to be regularly spending money on apps for some reason?