iPad and iPhone Paid App Patterns Diverge

By Gary Kim, Contributing Editor

People seem to be behaving differently in terms of their buying of content or features "in application" on their iPads, compared to their iPhones, based on the latest data from Distimo. "In app" purchases are five times higher on the iPad than on the iPhone (News - Alert), and the top iPhone purchased apps really are games, while on the iPad the top apps are "productivity" or "utility" apps. 

Some people have argued that the iPad is just an "iPhone with a bigger screen." Whatever truth there may be to that characterization, user application behaviors on each device seem to be distinct, aside from the obvious difference that the iPhone is a communications device while the iPad is more a content consumption device. 

Nine out of the 10 most popular paid applications on the Apple App Store for iPhone are "games." In the Nokia Ovi Store, seven out of ten of the most popular paid applications are "games." The top 10 iPad apps are productivity or utility apps. 

Also, iPad users seem to have more in common with BlackBerry and Android (News - Alert) smartphone users, in some ways. Android smartphone users are buying different types of apps than iPhone users. Where iPhone users buy games, Android's top-10 paid apps are utility or productivity apps, as is the case for BlackBerry paid apps as well. 

The percentage of applications with in-app purchases is significantly higher in the Apple App Store for iPad (10 percent) than in the Apple App Store for iPhone (two percent). 

The higher percentage of applications with in-app purchases in the Apple App Store for iPad may be caused by the fact that this store became available after in-app purchases were introduced, while in-app purchases were not available when the Apple App Store for iPhone was introduced, Distimo said. 

More importantly, another reason to consider is that the iPad may currently be used more as a media consumption device than the iPhone. User purchases of content would explain the higher "in app purchases" behavior, as users would be buying story access while already inside the magazine apps.

But the "games" category likely accounts for much of the activity, at least on the iPhone.  The most successful paid applications that were monetized using in-app purchases in June 2010 in the Apple App Store for iPhone are Guitar Hero (Activision (News - Alert) Publishing, Inc.), TomTom U.S.A. (TomTom International BV) and Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies II (Activision Publishing, Inc.). Two out of three of the top apps are games. TomTom is a navigation app. 

The "games" and “social networking" categories in both stores have the highest proportion of applications with in-app purchases available. .

The Distimo report covers the Apple App Store for iPad and iPhone (with specific focus on in-app purchases), as well as BlackBerry App World (Worldwide), Google (News - Alert) Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile for June 2010 in the United States. 

Among the interesting conclusions one might draw from the latest Distimo report is the apparent difference in user appetite for paid apps based on device. Where the top-10 iPhone paid apps are games, that isn't true for the iPad, BlackBerry or Android devices. 

To the extent that some have foreseen a segmentation of smartphone and tablet users based on lead applications and use cases, the Distimo data suggests there is differentiation. 

(source: http://gadgets.tmcnet.com/topics/gadgets/articles/93749-ipad-iphone-paid-app-patterns-diverge.htm)