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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Greater proportion of free apps on Android than iPhone






A new report from mobile analytics outfit Distimo shows that the Android Market has a much larger percentage of free applications available than Apple’s App Store.

57% of applications available for download on Google Android Market are free of charge, versus 28% of iPhone and 23% of iPad apps. Of the apps available on RIM’s Blackberry App World, 26% are free; the same percentage as those in Nokia’s Ovi store. The proportion of free apps on the Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace clock in at 34% and 22% respectively.

As well as comparing free versus paid apps across storefronts, the Distimo report looks at price-points of the paid apps and reveals that the average price of Top-100 grossing apps on the iPhone is $4.01, although the report notes that this figure is skewed somewhat by the inclusion of a couple of obscenely-priced applications such as concierge application iVIP Black (weighing in at a hefty $999.99) and security app iRa Pro (a steal at just $899.99).

The large proportion of free Android applications can largely be explained by the relative immaturity of the platform and the Android Marketplace. Paid-for applications cannot be distributed in all territories yet and users must sign up for a Google Checkout account in order to purchase Android applications. Currently, only 13 of the 46 countries where Android Market is available support distribution of paid apps, and only developers from 9 countries can publish them. As the Marketplace matures, it is expected that more developers will publish chargeable applications on Android.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting info.. can't say i'm a fan of Apple

    supported

    ReplyDelete
  2. my apple fanboi card was revoked after i didn't get a bonar for the iPhone and iPad

    ReplyDelete