Consumers Spent $40 Billion On App Store In First Half of 2021, Nearly Double That of Google Play Store (9to5mac.com) 47
According to a study from Finbold, consumers spent an estimated $41.5 billion on apps from the Apple App Store during the first six months of 2021, which is almost double compared to $23.4 billion spent by Android consumers. 9to5Mac reports: The Apple App Store spendings in H1 21 represents a growth of 22.05% from a similar period in 2020. Cumulatively, spending on the two platforms recorded a growth of 24.8%, year-over-year hitting a total of $64.9 billion: "Mobile app spending grew in 2021 mainly due to consumer behavior resulting from the containment measures around the coronavirus pandemic. From the H1 spending, the outstanding assumption is that consumers' demand might not be slowing down, considering that most global jurisdictions have eased the pandemic control measures with the vaccine rollout."
The report shows that although the App Store spending has remained significant, Google Play appears to be catching up by recording the highest growth rate between H1 2020 and H1 2021: 30% YoY. So even with the App Store doing way better, "Android flourished as the pandemic remained persistent in countries with an Android-dense population." The Finbold survey shows that to keep on the top, Apple's are countering with the Small Business Program, which reduces the App Store commission from 30% to 15% for developers grossing less than $1 million a year. Although the report shows that the spending on the App Store and Google Play Store were mainly dominated by the gaming sector, in which consumers globally spend $10.32 billion on mobile games in the first half of 2021, the survey highlights that the top three grossing mobile apps worldwide for H1 2021 are TikTok, YouTube, and Tinder.
The report shows that although the App Store spending has remained significant, Google Play appears to be catching up by recording the highest growth rate between H1 2020 and H1 2021: 30% YoY. So even with the App Store doing way better, "Android flourished as the pandemic remained persistent in countries with an Android-dense population." The Finbold survey shows that to keep on the top, Apple's are countering with the Small Business Program, which reduces the App Store commission from 30% to 15% for developers grossing less than $1 million a year. Although the report shows that the spending on the App Store and Google Play Store were mainly dominated by the gaming sector, in which consumers globally spend $10.32 billion on mobile games in the first half of 2021, the survey highlights that the top three grossing mobile apps worldwide for H1 2021 are TikTok, YouTube, and Tinder.
In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple tends to dominate the big spender market, so it's not a surprise. They also have a large following among the non-tech-savvy, but heavy users...the ones who are on their phones all day, but have never heard the word snapdragon or A12 (or any other apple silicon)...but they know their way around those instagram filters...the ones we used to make fun of for posting pictures on social media of their lunch, pre-COVID. Those people wouldn't be caught dead on an Android.
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I don't even have a debit card attached to my Google Play account, so their revenue from me is $0.
But I am "the product", apparently, so in downloading free apps Google still monetize me.
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I don't even have a debit card attached to my Google Play account, so their revenue from me is $0.
But I am "the product", apparently, so in downloading free apps Google still monetize me.
You should check out F-droid, it is full of open source apps. They're free-er.
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the ONLY way to get apps on that common phone is Apple's App Store
Yes anti-competitive behavior (as distinct from, but related to, anti-trust law) is profitable.
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry this is just wrong. Apple is not the most common. It has slightly over 50% in some wealthy western markets, and is less than 50% everywhere else, often much less.
I do agree that saying the iphone is the mercedes or ferrari with the implication that the androids are lesser phones is wrong. The highend androids are just as expensive and deluxe as any iphone or even moreso. But where apple makes everything from a say a ford f150 to a ferrari and sells a lot more f150 than ferraris; android makes everything from an electric scooter to a ferrari, and sells a lot more electric scooters than anything else.
You are right on android the google play appstore isn't the ONLY way to get apps, but it is where the VAST majority of western market users do in fact get their apps. (I don't have figures on markets like China or Africa)
Even so, in a western country like the US, UK, Canada etc, the high end iphone and android users are pretty much the same spending patterns. And the mid range android and iphone users are pretty much the same spending patterns.
The primary difference boils down to the fact that android pretty much owns the low end budget market of users that spend nothing on apps and in-app purchases.
So even in a wealthy country where the market is split 50/50 apple ends up with a higher take from the app store than android, because a larger proportion of its 50% is at the bottom end spending nothing.
And in poorer countries sure android dominates, but nobody is spending a lot of money on the app stores there so its not enough to make up for it. And its possible 3rd party app stores are also a non-trivial factor there.
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"Apple iPhone are 'given away' with many US phone plans,"
Yes, but that's not the bottom end of the market. That's quite comfortably in the middle. To qualify for that you've got to qualify for credit. And your monthly plan isn't rock bottom because, as you mentioned, the phone isn't really 'given away' -- you are paying it off.
The bottom end are rock bottom priced rate plans or pay-as-you-go with phones you can buy outright for $30 to $100. No iphones down there.
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So rich people all run android? (Score:3)
The iPhone isn't the Mercedes or the Ferrari, the iPhone is the Honda CRV or Ford F150 of phones.
Not the iPhone Pro Max...and I see a lot of those on the subway. However, think of the wealthy people you know, outside of Google employees...do they run iOS or Android? Every lawyer, doctor, etc I know runs iOS...everyone with a middle class income and upper middle class spending habits I know is Apple-only and proud of it. They have a loyal following of big spenders. True, the have cheaper models that are popular with more sensible people, but its not CRV vs Ferrari...it's more like Starbucks vs Dunk
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Interesting, it's the other way around here. iPhones are mostly used by older people, while the Millennials and gen Z prefer Android.
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What Apple deciples actually believe
Mate, it's a niche product! It has a sub-20% market share, last time I checked!
Most of they world could not even afford their jewelry! Not would they have any interest in requiring "bling".
Apple is the pseudo-high-tech equivalent of the gold watch our grandparents used for that purpose.
And it's pseudo, because it only *looks* like "the future" to those who would still print out the Internet otherwise, say "cyber*", and think the ne
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And it's pseudo, because it only *looks* like "the future" to those who would still print out the Internet otherwise, say "cyber*", and think the net is a series of tubes.
If not an always-connected computer that fits in your pocket, what's the non-pseudo version of "the future" in your mind?
Not that at all (Score:1)
Mercedes owners are more likely to get the deluxe package from their local car wash than Kia drivers.
I think a car analogy is particularly ill suited here because that's not even close to what is happening.
iOS users spend more, because they are used t paying for things at all in the Apple App Store.
Way more things on Android are ad supported only, so most apps people don't even pay for at all.
Apple is primarily a pay to use ecosystem, Android is not... I prefer iOS because I dislike ads in apps.
Re: Not that at all (Score:1)
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iPhones are also popular at the cheap end of the market, as hand-me-downs and second hand devices. The fact that they get relatively long support cycles makes them a popular choice for those on a smaller budget.
The more likely reason why iOS users spend more is because there are fewer free/open source apps available to them. Also Apple forces users to use their payment processing where as on Android many purchases don't go through Google Play at all, e.g. Fortnight or Amazon's own app store.
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Except Mercedes are actual proper cars, bought and used to drive, including professional taxis, transporters and trucks.
Not bought merely as jewelry, or to be precise, a talisman by people with a self-confidence problem, to make them feel superior. (While being laughed at by experts.)
At least here in Germany.
I know the brand has a jewelry status in the US. But really, if you call a taxi here in Germany, it's most likely to be one of the better Mercedes models.
Apple things are expensive solely for the purpos
would be interesting (Score:3)
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I'm fairly sure the answer is "so much less that they'd be embarrassed to release the numbers."
Re:would be interesting (Score:4, Interesting)
to know how much people spend on alternative app stores for android, such as Samsung's or Huawei's, or independent stores like SlideMe
My spouse has an app business. She had her app listed on many of these sites and they totaled to about 2% of her sales. Google was about 5%.
I finally convinced her to just dump Android support. The extra cost and hassle for about 7% of sales just weren't worth it. She now develops for only iOS.
Android only makes sense if your app is free.
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What app does she develop? Maybe there was a lot more competition on Android, perhaps from free/open source apps.
A lot of the apps on my phone are open source from the F-Droid store, for example. There are paid versions on Play but they are usually worse and I wouldn't use them even if they were free.
Re:would be interesting (Score:4, Interesting)
I think it would be more interesting to see a category break down, was the money spent on games or in game purchases.
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I get all my apps from F-droid, and I know how much people spend there: $0
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I'm guessing not much. Android users tend to be more budget-conscious, and there are some pretty decent free apps for a variety of tasks.
Yeah, but... (Score:1)
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"Download on the App Store or Google Play"
Seriously, you've never encountered such advertising? App store may be a generic term in a sense but it's commonly associated with iOS.
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No it's not. Get an iOS device. It has both an App Store AND and Apple Store. Which is not in the least bit confusing, because Apple can do no wrong.
Is it really the same though? (Score:1)
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How much of this increased spend is increased cost of apps in the apple app store due to the large cut that apple takes? Then of course android users have other options than the google play store for their apps, including 3rd party app stores, and just pirating and side loading APKs.
Apple is not taking a larger cut than Google, historically it was always 30% with both. From my experience, Apple users simply spend much more per user, they expect to pay for a decent app/service, while the majority of Android users expects things for free and will be more reluctant to pay for something even if they are not savvy enough for pirating/side loading etc.
I will give you a good example: I work for a company that offers free website/iOS/Android app with millions of users. You can pay for upgrades
Well, of course (Score:1)
TikTok? (Score:2)
What can you buy on TikTok?
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I pasted your question into a search engine, and the summary of the second result included: "Users can only buy Coins and Gifts, send Gifts to others, receive Gifts with monetary value"
So it's partially an informal cam-like site.
Apple (Score:2)
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It's a good thing for Apple in that they are getting paid.
It would be bad if users were more savvy, but Apple's market has literally always been the less-savvy users. Even in the apple 2 days the competing computers were commonly harder to work with.
Apple customers lack financial responsibility (Score:1, Troll)
So Apple customers lack financial responsibility, why is this news? They also lack good taste and don't understand that by flaunting the black poison apple logo they self identify as shallow dorks.
Remember when... (Score:2)
Remember when Apple's big talking point was that Android owners don't spend any money at all? So now they spend billions and this is Apple's new fallback. Apple's never ending fallback claims are at least entertaining.
And queue the inevitable ... (Score:3)
... anti-Apple comments that get upvoted.
Whenever there's ANY article related to Apple, out they come, the haters, the lazy tropes bandied about once again.
Then again, this is Slashdot, with probably an ageing audience of neck-beards (yep, I'm one of those)
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+1 Inevitable and sad.
The modern handset is the lifeline to/from the world. I expect it to do two things well: phone calls, and information exchange. I don't want to have to tinker with it to keep it fed. iPhones bring a whole level of
I'm pretty old myself, having listened to the first moon landing on the AM (!) radio. No neckbeard, though.
My first pc was one I built myself, with Windows 3.1! (jeez that was fun...) Since then, I've built pretty much every desktop pc I've ever owned. Still running Windows. A
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Well, yeah, your story is a case in point.
The sad "haters" paint all iPhone users as "style over substance" or "clueless", yet if I look at some of my exceptionally smart work colleagues, iPhone ownership is about 70% of the total. I still use android, but that's because I'm familiar with it.
We're talking highly technical programmers here, some with 30+ years in the field, some of whom have done the lecture circuit - and they own iPhones.
It's a trade-off, you either go for completely dependable and "a walle
More proof (Score:2)
More proof that Apple users are overpaying.