Only two percent of Android apps use in-app purchases
An absolute majority of the top-grossing apps on iPad, iPhone and Android now monetize with in-app purchases according to Distimo. The app tracking company also found Android apps still lag far behind iOS apps in adopting the payment method.
Distimo looked at the top 200 grossing applications in the iPad App Store, the iPhone App Store and the Google Play store in February. It found 74 percent of the top grossing iPad apps and 80 percent of the top grossing iPhone apps featured in-app purchases. On Google Play, the percentage was only 56 percent.
The company’s report also found just two percent of apps in the Google Play store featured in-app purchases. By comparison, 10 percent of iPad apps and six percent of iPhone apps monetized through in-app purchases.
Distimo’s findings are interesting for a couple of reasons. First, we’ve been hearing for some time now that iPad apps tend to monetize better than iPhone apps. Last month TinyCo’s co-founder Suleman Ali reported his company’s average revenue per user (ARPU) could be up to two to three times higher on the iPad that on the iPhone. While a higher percentage of in-app purchases doesn’t directly correlate to more revenue for developers, it could be one of the factors contributing to the iPad’s growing reputation as a lucrative platform.
More importantly it’s a clear indicator of why Google Play isn’t able to deliver iOS style revenues to developers yet. Android not only has a shorter history with in-app purchases — the option only became available at the end of May last year — but it also shows far fewer Android apps overall have implemented in-app purchases as a payment method.
It’s important to note that unlike iOS, Android doesn’t have a userbase set up to make in-app purchases. However, Google has been attempting to remedy the issue with discounted app promotions designed to get consumers used to paying for content on its platform. Earlier in the year analysts at IHS screen digest predicted Android would begin to close the revenue gap on iOS as the a free-to-play model supported by in-app purchases gains traction among Android developers.
March 29th, 2012 at 8:11 am
[...] from: Most top-grossing apps monetize with in-app purchases, but … Posted in Uncategorized Tags: absolute-majority, app-tracking, apps-on-ipad, far-behind, [...]
March 30th, 2012 at 7:16 am
[...] 据美国移动应用资讯博客Inside Mobile Apps的消息，据Distimo的一份报告，绝大多数的最畅销iPad、iPhone和Android应用现在都是通过应用内购来实现货币化的。这家应用跟踪机构同时还发现，Anroid应用在所采用的支付方式上仍然远远落后于iOS应用。 Distimo观察了二月苹果应用商店（App Store）里200个畅销iPad应用和iPhone应用以及Google Play商店里的200个Android畅销应用，并发现74%的iPad畅销应用和80%的iPhone畅销应用都拥有应用内购功能。在Google Play里，这个比例只有56%。 另外，Distimo的报告发现，Google Play商店里，只有2%的应用设置了应用内购。与此相比，iPad和iPhone应用通过应用内购方式实现收入的比例分别为10%和6%。 InsideMobileApps研究报告 Distimo的这些发现很有意义，原因如下。首先，一段时间以来，iPad应用都被认为是比iPhone应用的变现能力更强。上月，TinyCo公司联合创始人Suleman Ali称其公司的iPad版游戏的单用户平均收入（ARPU）比iPhone版游戏的高出二至三倍。虽然高比例的应用内购与开发者收入增加没有直接的关联关系，但却是让iPad作为一个赚钱平台而名声日隆的因素之一。 更为重要的是，这很明显地提示了Google Player不能为开发者实现iOS式的收入的原因。Android拥有应用内购的时间不仅更短——这个功能选项只是在2011年五月才实现，而且只有为数不多的应用将应用内购作为一种支付手段而得到实现。 需要重点注意的是，Android与iOS不同，不需要依靠用户数量来开发应用内购。不过，Google一直试图通过应用打折促销的方式来解决这个问题，以便让消费者习惯于为其平台上的内容付费。在今年年初，HIS的分析师预测当由应用内购所支撑的免费模式会让Android开发者之间的收入得到增长，进而缩小Android与iOS的差距。 [...]
March 30th, 2012 at 11:33 am
[...] Distimo reported 80 percent of the top 200 grossing iPhone apps used in-app purchases, but only 56 percent of the top 200 grossing Android apps [...]
April 1st, 2012 at 10:26 am
[...] Only two percent of Android apps use in-app purchases [...]
April 2nd, 2012 at 4:11 am
[...] Distimo провела очередное исследование. В его ходе она изучила 200 кассовых приложений на трех рынках: iPad App Store, iPhone App [...]
April 3rd, 2012 at 8:19 am
[...] Source: Inside Mobile Apps [...]
April 21st, 2012 at 11:06 pm
[...] to come in in second as it has a better understanding of how to support third party developers. With less than half of what iOS has in terms of apps with in-app purchase capability, Android has a long way to go to make monetizing on the platform something good for developers and [...]
April 21st, 2012 at 11:29 pm
[...] to come in in second as it has a better understanding of how to support third party developers. With less than half of what iOS has in terms of apps with in-app purchase capability, Android has a long way to go to make monetizing on the platform something good for developers and [...]
April 22nd, 2012 at 1:01 am
[...] second as it has a better understanding of how to support third party developers. With less than half of what iOS has in terms of apps with in-app purchase capability, Android has a long way to go to make monetizing on the platform something good for [...]
June 1st, 2012 at 3:29 am
[...] just started testing in-app purchasing, and while it appears that only 2 percent of Android apps offer in-app buying, that really just means it’s kind of an untapped market. It’s a [...]
June 1st, 2012 at 3:43 am
[...] just started testing in-app purchasing, and while it appears that only 2 percent of Android apps offer in-app buying, that really just means it’s kind of an untapped market. It’s a [...]
June 1st, 2012 at 4:02 am
[...] just started testing in-app purchasing, and while it appears that only 2 percent of Android apps offer in-app buying, that really just means it’s kind of an untapped market. It’s a [...]
June 11th, 2012 at 10:20 am
[...] year that 74 percent of the top grossing iPad apps and 80 percent of the top grossing iPhone apps featured in-app purchases. Cook says Apple paid out $5 billion to developers from App Store sales this [...]
September 5th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
[...] more evidence that in-app purchases are driving most of the revenues in mobile apps. According to Inside Mobile Apps, Distimo, which specializes in tracking app store activity, reports that a majority of the [...]
September 17th, 2012 at 2:27 am
[...] just started testing in-app purchasing, and while it appears that only 2 percent of Android apps offer in-app buying, that really just means it’s kind of an untapped market. It’s a [...]