Google Play Growing Faster than the App Store, Poised to Pass it in 2013-14
January 31, 2013
By Michael Guta, TMCnet Contributing Writer
No matter what side of the OS platform you stand on, you have to appreciate the App Store and the incredible growth it has experienced. The company still maintains its hold on the number-one spot even though it’s competing against several companies.
The Android (News - Alert) OS is used by several different phone manufacturers, and this is what’s driving growth that is 10 times greater than iOS. In the last quarter of 2012, Google (News - Alert) grew by 200 percent, while iOS only experienced a 20-percent growth.
This rise, however, didn’t translate to more revenue, because the App Store earned revenue that totaled more than 350 percent.
The biggest factor in the disparity of the revenue is the length of time in which the App Store has been operating. This gives the company more publishers and apps in its store, giving consumers more choices.
But the gap is closing and Google Play will also dominate this segment of the platform wars.
The meteoric rise the Android platform is experiencing can be attributed to the sales of phones using this OS. The top four mobile phone vendors by market share in 2012 were:
- Samsung: 396.5 million units
- Nokia: 335.6 million units
- Apple: 135.8 million units
- ZTE: 71.7 million units
Among smartphone sales, Samsung (News - Alert) and ZTE plus other vendors not on the list almost exclusively use Android as their OS. The numbers are too great for Apple to hold on to the lead, and it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a distant second.
Another big factor is the sales for Google Play, and the App Store is being dominated by the market in Asia in countries like China, Japan and Korea – and a large proportion of this population uses the Android platform. With 75 percent of the 1.6 billion phones shipped in the world in 2012 going to Asia, the advantage is going to keep in Google’s direction.
What is clear to anyone looking at these numbers is that the Android platform has a firm grasp on the global market. Apple (News - Alert) has to change by introducing phones the vast majority of the world can afford. As it stands now, the phones are out of the price range of most people, and only when they address this issue will they be able to keep their share of the market and not fall behind.
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Edited by Braden Becker