In their May 2011 publication, Distimo reports, “It is more challenging for developers in the Google Android Market than in the Apple App Store to monetize using a one-off fee monetization model. We found that only two paid applications have been downloaded more than half a million times in the Google Android Market worldwide to date, while six paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPhone generate the same number of downloads within a two month timeframe in the United States alone.”
“Looking at just games, there are five paid games in Google Android Market with over 250,000 downloads worldwide,” Distimo reports. “In the Apple App Store for iPhone ten paid games generated more than 250,000 downloads in the United States alone in two months.”
“The refresh rate of top application charts is significantly higher in the Apple App Store for iPhone than in the Google Andoid Market,” Distimo reports. “During the month of April, there were 94 distinct applications with a top 10 (free or paid) position in the Apple App Store for iPhone in the US; there were only 26 distinct applications that reached a top 10 position in the Google Android Market.”
“Looking at paid applications in the Google Android Market, downloads are significantly lower than they are for free applications,” Distimo reports. “The percentage of all free applications that have been downloaded less than 100 times is 24.8%, and the percentage of paid applications that have been downloaded less than 100 times worldwide is 79.3%. These figures reveal how challenging it is for Android developers to monetize applications in the Google Android Market using a one-off fee monetization model. This may be one of the reasons why the majority of the applications are free in Google Android Market (in contrast to the Apple App Store, for example), and may also be why developers have turned to advertising to monetize their applications. Angry Birds is probably the best known example of this. All of the Angry Birds series in the Google Android Market are free and feature ads, while in the Apple App Store, these same applications are all paid applications with far fewer ads.”
Distimo reports, “It is interesting to note that paid applications have a higher chance to reach high download volumes in the Apple App Store for iPhone than in the Google Android Market.”
Distimo’s full May 2011 report is available for free here.
[Attribution: Cult of Mac. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lava_Head_UK” for the heads up.]