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Apple Still Dominates Tablet And App Store Usage But Android Is Gaining Ground

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Apple ’s iPad continues to dominate usage and revenue generation of mobile devices. Chitika and Distimo have recently released surveys that show Apple still has a substantial majority of tablet usage and revenue generation from their respective app stores.

However, both surveys indicate that Apple is losing share to Google in both usage and revenue.  This isn’t really surprising due to the  OEMs that are releasing a greater number of tablet and smartphone models with enhanced features.

Apple’s iPads drive a substantial portion of tablet traffic

Chitika measures add impressions over 250,000 websites from over 100,000 users in North America.  Its latest data shows that Apple’s share of tablet usage has leveled off at just over 80%.  It has a 10x lead over Amazon’s Kindle Fire and a 17x lead over Samsung’s Galaxy tablets.

Source: Chitika

While iPad’s usage was still very high at 81.9% in March (and 81.3% for April shown in the previous graph) it has declined from 92% over a five month timeframe.  Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet web traffic has doubled but from a low base of 2.1% growing to 4.3%.  Its share took a big jump from 2.7% in December to 3.9% in January due to holiday sales but its increase has tapered off in the past two months.

Source: Chitika

Apple’s App Store generates the bulk of app revenue but is losing share

Distimo tracks over three billion downloads per quarter from app stores. I tracked Apple’s App downloads a few weeks ago when the total downloads were reaching 50 billion. Over the eleven days leading up to the 50 billion there was an average of 60 million apps being downloaded every day. At that rate over the course of three months Apple will download 5.4 billion apps.

One of the statistics in Distimo’s latest report is that daily revenue from the top 200 apps was $5.1 million in the Apple App store vs. $1.1 million in Google Play, a 4.6x delta. I’ve calculated that app developers receive $0.175 per app on average based on Apple’s announced app downloads and what it has paid to developers. Based on an average of 60 million downloads a day developers are receiving a total of $10.5 million every day just from Apple.

There are instances where some apps are generating more revenue in Google Play vs. Apple’s App store such as Blood Brothers by Mobage. Also WhatsApp is a free app in Google Play and a $0.99 one-time fee in the Apple App store. However it generates more revenue in Google Play in Germany, Italy and Spain with a $0.99 yearly subscription fee after the first year being free.

It is interesting to see how an app developer can have different revenue models based on the platform. It would not surprise me to see more subscription models being implemented with auto renewal.

Both Apple’s and Google’s app revenue continues to increase with Apple losing some share to Google.  One factor that helps Apple maintain a high share is that it has had apps available for a longer period of time which still generate revenue.

Over a five month timeframe Distimo tracked all ranked applications in the 18 largest countries from the Apple App Store and Google Play. Its results show that while Apple’s revenue increased (no scale provided) its share decreased from 81% to 73% while Google’s share increased from 19% to 27%.

Interestingly the Japanese and South Korean markets were the main contributors to the share shift.  These countries could be leading indicators or just be unique in their usage patterns.

Source: Distimo

Disclaimer: My family and I own Apple shares

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