The growth of Google Play revenue over the course of 2013 should serve as a warning to Apple, according to Distimo. Distimo's Year in Review report looked at the top downloads by country, app business models and more.
- Google Play's revenue grew by 51 percent when comparing the revenue at the end of June and November 2013 respectively. Aggregated revenue of the Apple App Store increased by 12 percent during the same period.
- While market share distribution was only 37 percent for Google Play compared to 63 percent for the Apple App Store, Google Play has seen a jump from 30 percent in June vs. 70 percent for Apple.
- The proportion of revenue based on in-app purchases increased from 77 percent to 92 percent in the Apple App Store and from 89 percent to 98 percent on Google Play.
- 63 percent of the revenue on iOS is generated from apps of the Games category.
"With the Apple App Store still leading in terms of revenue, we saw Google Play's market share increase. We also noticed an increasing weight of the Amazon Appstore in terms of download volumes, and analyzing the top app charts, it became apparent that a lot of the top apps are also successful across the app stores," the report said.
According to Distimo's report, Google Play edged into Apple's App Store market share.
Though Distimo didn't spell it out, 2013 was the year the mobile analytics space took off in a big way, with a slew of competitors like App Annie, Flurry and others trying to educate app developers with data like this.
Further, if the trends around freemium in mobile gaming hold true, we should expect to see an even bigger shift away from paid apps in 2014, and possibly a more significant challenge to Apple's App Store dominance from Google Play and others.
Perhaps the biggest test of all will be whether some of the best-selling apps listed by Distimo will come from brand-new names when the next edition of this report comes out.
For more:
- to download the complete Distimo Year in Review report, click here
Related Stories:
Distimo, MEF report says free apps with in-app purchases generate 'majority of revenue'
YouTube, Angry Birds among top iOS, Android apps, says Distimo
Distimo: Apple's App Store anniversary promotions didn't change app rankings