Apple App Store sells twice as many apps as Android Market
Need directions to your friend's party? There's an app for that. Want to know how to say "hello" in 13 different languages? There's an app for that, too. Actually, it seems like there's an app for just about everything these days, and it's no surprise that the creators of these apps have the potential of making lots of money from them.
According to an AdMob report released yesterday, Android and iPhone users download approximately 10 new apps each month, while iPod touch owners download an average of 18 per month. Also, users who regularly download paid apps spend an average of about $9 on five paid downloads per month. So, you do the math -- the app market is a prime place to earn (and spend) your dough.
AdMob surveyed over 1,000 iPhone, iPod touch and Android users over a one-week period in July 2009 on the more than 7,000 mobile sites and 3,000 applications in AdMob’s network. iPhone represented 60 percent of U.S. smartphone usage, followed by RIM and Android devices at 13 and 12 percent, respectively.
The survey found that 19 percent of Android users regularly download one or more paid apps a month, compared to 50 percent of iPhone users and 40 percent of iPod touch users. Could that large gap be because there are more apps for iPhone/iPod touch than there are apps for Android phones? Maybe these numbers are so drastic because there are less Android users out there?
The report also shows that the majority -- 90 percent to be exact -- of app discovery within the Apple App Store and the Android Market happens through the phone's browser, rather than from the user's computer. Also to note is that users who have bought paid apps say they did so because they liked the free version. See that? The "lite" versions actually do work in getting people to pay for the full version.
Are you an Apple app person or an Android Market person, and how many apps do you buy on average? Let us know in the comments below.
[Read the full AdMob report here]