The Apple-Google rivalry has been dying down in recent years as both tech giants have accepted that they need each other to survive. However, there are still a few instances where competition is important and that is revenue for app developers. A report by Times of India states that Apple has always been ahead of Google as the Cupertino-based smartphone manufacturer is always the one to beat when it comes to quality control of its apps as well as privacy. When it comes to revenue, Apple is once again ahead of Google as a note from app research firm Sensor Tower states that the top 100 apps on the App Store earned revenue of a whopping USD 83 million in the first quarter of 2019.
Apple had about 65 per cent more revenue than Google which earned just USD 51 million from its 100 top-ranked apps on the Play Store for the same time period. What’s interesting is that even though Android dominates when it comes to market share, Apple still dominates in this numbers game. Estimates suggest that as much as 85 per cent of the smartphone market are on Android, but Apple still manages to beat Google when it comes to making money.
Elaborating on the data, it is the non-gaming apps that pull in most of the revenue on the Apple App Store and the average revenue from the top 100 non-gaming apps for Apple is USD 23 million in comparison to Google’s USD 7 million. While Apple does earn a fair amount of revenue from its gaming apps, the margin isn’t as wide when compared to Google. Top 100 gaming apps on iOS received revenue of USD 70 million while Google received USD 48 million.
With that being said, Apple did receive a dip in its revenue as in 2018, iOS users had spent 88 per cent more on apps in comparison to Android users had spent on their app store. The report ends by stating that a key point to consider is that Apple users are more likely to spend on apps because Android handsets come at highly varied price ranges. A fair share of Android users purchase budget handsets and most probably aren’t interested in purchasing apps. This in itself gives Apple the advantage over Android.
