App Store on Smartphone
Overall, the mobile app industry is dominated by two app stores — Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store. Today, there is an ongoing battle for the mobile app market!
In fact, Gartner forecasts that iOS and Android app store downloads will account for 90% of global app downloads in 2017. According to Gartner research director Brian Blau, Apple has always seemed to be the most valuable app store for developers, as it tended monetize apps better and offered developers a chance to make more money than they could at Google Play. When the Gartner forecast was published in September 2013, Blau noted that 60% of apps on the App Store were free while 80% of apps available on Google Play were free.
According to 451 Research, the average Android user downloads 4.1 apps per month, with 3.4 average free apps downloaded. For iOS, 451 Research said that the average iOS user downloads 6.2 apps per month, with an average of 4.3 free apps every month. To put that into perspective, the Apple App Store pulled in $10 billion in 2013, putting Google Play at 13% of Apple App Store revenue. According to a report from Forrester Research, Inc., the majority of people find new apps through general browsing in the app store.
There’s an argument that they novelty of apps is wearing off and people are becoming less fascinated with them, as they get used to app stores and the concept of apps as an alternative to the web.