2012 marked a turning point in The App Economy. Apple’s App Store will surpass $10 billion in cumulative revenue
and despite the market share gains by arch-rival open-source Android, Apple is still the undisputed revenue king. Nearly 100,000 new developers created applications this year for the App Store, which rakes in 4x more revenue than Google Play. With the number of App Store applications now topping 1 million, application discovery platform Appsfire has released a fascinating end of year infographic about the App Store. My interpretation: don’t get fooled by the market share headlines- Apple is still a more attractive platform for developers.
Developers continue to prioritize iOS applications, with a new application published every 90 seconds. According to AppsFire, over 95,000 new developers created their first iOS application this year. The dominant business model (66%) is ‘freemium’
Games may be the dominant revenue category but hardly the majority of all applications.
Very few (0.14%) applications make it to the Top 10. In fact, almost 90% of apps get no traction in the App Store
One variable that enhances the probability of success is high User Reviews. Only 1 in 5 User Reviews are “Excellent”, suggesting the importance of great game-play combined with effective marketing.
You can see the infographic here. Appsfire was founded by Ouriel Ohayon in 2009 and is headquartered in Paris and Tel Aviv.
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* Levi Shapiro is a Professor in the Media Innovation Lab at IDC and Partner at TMT Strategic Advisors He works with media and technology companies from Tokyo to Tel Aviv and is a regular columnist at the Jerusalem Post.
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