back to article Money from apps? It's all about Apple iOS, says survey

A new survey of mobile app developers shows that Apple iOS is where the money is, despite Android's higher market share among mobile devices. VisionMobile surveyed more than 8,000 developers across 143 countries, and the ensuing report presents a detailed snapshot of the state of the mobile app economy. The consistent theme …

  1. ratfox
    Paris Hilton

    How much of that is porn?

  2. TheDoc

    Of course $0 revenue apps are on Android

    It's no shock at all that zero revenue apps are more popular on Android. If you are going to release an app which is not actually expected to generate money, would you release it on the free Google Play store, or for the £60/year Apple store.

    1. baryonic

      Re: Of course $0 revenue apps are on Android

      To be allowed to submit apps to Google Play, developers must pay a one-time $25 US registration fee. It is not "free".

      Both Google Play and the App Store pay developers 70% of the app's earned revenue.

  3. Ragarath

    Huge sample

    I'm sorry, but that sample over that many countries is tiny. How is it supposed to represent anything?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    So, basically, there's bog-all money in apps.

    Unless it's an e-commerce app, in which case the minute fractional kickback from all the sales/bookings that go through it is worth vastly more than the pittance you could hope to make off any of your own schemes.

    As for platform, people who've bought an Apple product are slightly more easily parted from their cash, but then by publishing for it, all you do is demonstrate that you are as well.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. SuccessCase

        Re: So, basically, there's bog-all money in apps.

        Sorry selected the fail icon by accident. Though I don't agree with your comment it wasn't intended to be a reference to it.

        Reposting here:

        There's plenty of money in apps. The iOS Appstore alone in the US raked in more money than the U.S. box office. Additionally, very many apps are not made to bring in independent revenues, such as e.g. Starbucks/Costa loyalty apps, so any figures that divide revenues by number of apps published are somewhat misleading. Bennedict Evans, with some justification last year, estimated the iOS Appstore economy to be worth about 14 billion dollars per anum Google Play store about 6 billion.

        workings out

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: So, basically, there's bog-all money in apps.

      A few years ago I quickly twigged where the money was to be made in apps... writing apps for other people. :) Selling shovels and all that during a gold rush. While I might have missed out on the odd successfull app I've made much more money than the rest of them are likely to ever make.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Devil

        Re: So, basically, there's bog-all money in apps.

        Exactly. All that says is that it's highly profitable to have an App store, and it's even more profitable if you can persuade people to actually pay you to publish their apps for them. Which I think is what the chap below is trying to say as well...

  5. ntevanza

    Because I'm worth it

    An Apple customer and his money are soon parted.

    1. SuccessCase

      Re: Because I'm worth it

      Nothing unintelligent about buying healthy products with a healthy margin. The alternative is what so often results in the kind of race to the bottom price competition that drives companies like Lenovo to think Superfish is a good idea,

  6. Zippy's Sausage Factory
    Meh

    Doesn't this just reflect the fact that Apple customers have money to spend - they're equivalent to the top end Android people, which is probably 20% of Android users but 80% of the Google Play revenue. Everyone else is on cheaper "landfill" Android and can't afford stuff.

    (That said, I have both Apple and Android kit around and only ever paid for stuff on the Apple app store... hmm...)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Pretty much. This is what all analysts need to learn, at least the ones who keep saying the iPhone is doomed if Apple doesn't address the low end market where all the smartphone growth is. Apple doesn't care to address the low end because they don't make money there, and developers don't make money there. Android's market share leadership is irrelevant, Apple has the majority of the high end, and 0% of the low end, and they're fine with that.

  7. Richard Jones 1
    Unhappy

    What are All These Little Programs

    Not that I have ever seen the point of a machine that needs to have bits downloaded to make it more usable, my take is different. What do these add ons actually bring to the party? What do they do? Perhaps it is simply that the programs add something to the lives of IOS users that others do not feel they lack?

    Note this is not intended to be a snide comment, for example, the average college or school person probably does not need, e.g. a stock ticker that others might rave about. So you will not sell many if the phone's demographic is wrong for your mini program. Add the fact that cost concious customers do not splash out on dumb so much as those who can easily write off the experience . Finally, 'community users' probably slag off any miniprog that adds noting to their life, thus stopping others in their circle from falling in. Perhaps IOS users simply do not deal with things the same way as others. Everyone has their own needs and interests and this may be reflected in all of their purchasing actions?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What are All These Little Programs

      On the other hand, selling a stock ticker app will give you a list of consumers with money invested/to spend.

    2. jai

      Re: What are All These Little Programs

      Not that I have ever seen the point of a machine that needs to have bits downloaded to make it more usable

      you've never upgraded the firmware on anything?

      or updated your OS with the latest, security patched, version?

      are you typing this on a PC that's only running the pre-bundled software it came from?

      I'm sure there are many people in that scenario, but i'd be gobsmacked to discover any of them reading and posting on El Reg

  8. This post has been deleted by its author

  9. Mr.Mischief

    Considering that there are more app developers for Android than iOS, isn't going by a percentage (saying so many percent of iOS developers make so much money or more vs so many Android developers) make it seem like there are more iOS developers making the threshold when in fact more Android developers could be making it?

    I find this article so Apple biased, all the numbers seem to show higher Android stats, but the headline focuses on just one figure (which is biased in favor of Apple anyway).

    El Reg is starting to sound like a fanboi.

    Anyway, who cares, people who pay for new phones every couple of years as a status symbol have more money to spend. Who knew? And for those who say I'm still using the iPhone one that Noah used to call up his animal rescue.. well if you are, then you are not on the latest iOS, which means the iOS market is fragmented because of you.

    1. Captain Queeg

      "Considering that there are more app developers for Android than iOS, isn't going by a percentage (saying so many percent of iOS developers make so much money or more vs so many Android developers) make it seem like there are more iOS developers making the threshold when in fact more Android developers could be making it?"

      True enough, but by the same logic doesn't that mean more Android Devs are failing the threshold too?

      I don't quite see why you see percentages as invalid? They seem representative to me and far better for analysis. Working on absolute numbers would be like asserting that 10p Bic Biros must be inherently easier to lose than Parker Duofolds simply because Bic sell more units.

  10. sebastianporst

    I don't understand why people develop for Android given that its so hard to make money from it. I think a lot of Android developers are fooled by the 85% usage rate of Android and think that is the platform they should go with. But Android developers find that high usage doesn't mean more money given most Android usage is in places like China and India and not in wealthier places like Europe or America. The result is that most Android developers tend to be hobbyists who enjoy writing apps and impressing friends and don't mind that they're not making any money. Also given there is no vetting process for apps on Google Play there is no annoying wait time to put your apps up so this also attracts hobbyists. The downside of the lack of app scrutinization and professional developers means that Google Play has a lot of clutter with a lot of apps that aren't very useful.

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