According to research2guidance, the market for paid applications on the five leading mobile platforms increased by 27% compared to 2011, and amounted to $8 billion.
At the same time, the average revenue from one paid application has dropped significantly: from $26.7 the year before last to $19.5 in 2012. Despite this, the demand for paid mobile applications continues to grow rapidly. The main driver is the continued growth in the number of smartphones with pre–installed app stores. Most of the paid downloads are provided by Apple App Store, Google Play, BlackBerry App World, Nokia Ovi Store and Windows Phone Store.
The figures presented by research2guidance, in our opinion, are very doubtful for three reasons. Firstly, the App Store in 2012 earned, according to official data, $4.2 billion on ALL applications, Google Play – about $ 1 billion more. With all their desire, BlackBerry App World, Nokia Ovi Store and Windows Phone Store could not earn another $3 billion even for three.
Secondly, the share of revenue attributable to paid applications is less than the share attributable to free ones, it is much smaller. In other words, based on the same official Apple data, there was simply nowhere to take such an amount – $8 billion.
Thirdly, the company’s analysts, for some strange reason, did not mention one of the largest app stores – the Amazon App Store.
So we would not recommend taking this study seriously.