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App Store Downloads and Revenue Surpasses 50% Growth on Christmas Day 2013

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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According to a new report from App Store analytics firm Distimo (via The Next Web), Apple's App Store once again experienced a great spike in interest on Christmas day, with revenue increasing by 56 percent and the number of total downloads rising by 53 percent.

The firm tied the increase in downloads and revenue to interest from Western countries on Christmas day, and also credits developers such as Rovio Entertainment and ZeptoLab strategically releasing their titles just before Christmas to maximize product interest and profit potential.

appstore_christmasday13-800x499.png
Main contributors to this year's Christmas spike were Western countries. For example: download volume in the United Kingdom increased by 161 percent on Christmas day. In addition, revenues in United States almost doubled with a plus of 97 percent in the Apple App Store. In the large Asian app markets like Japan and Korea this trend was hardly visible.
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However, while the figures show strong App Store numbers on Christmas day this year, the report also notes that the percentages in 2013 are lower compared to the past two years. On Christmas day 2011, Distimo stated that there was a threefold growth in download volume compared to an average day in December, which was followed by near double download growth a year later.

Other notable Christmas 2013 findings from the firm include data showing that the increase in paid downloads was greater than that of free downloads, and that the growth of revenue from in-app purchases was less than that of the growth in revenue from apps charging a one-time fee.

Article Link: App Store Downloads and Revenue Surpasses 50% Growth on Christmas Day 2013
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/12/31/app-store-downloads-and-revenue-surpasses-50-growth-on-christmas-day-2013/
N

N64

macrumors regular
Dec 24, 2013
161
0
Lost Woods
I'd actually consider an iTunes gift card a lame Christmas present. Too sterile. A sweater or something would be nicer.
 
L

Lionel Messi

macrumors regular
Dec 2, 2013
213
236
Barcelona, Spain
I love this statement because I really hate IAPs:
Other notable Christmas 2013 findings from the firm include data showing that the increase in paid downloads was greater than that of free downloads, and that the growth of revenue from in-app purchases was less than that of the growth in revenue from apps charging a one-time fee.
Click to expand...
 
AngerDanger

AngerDanger

Graphics
Staff member
Dec 9, 2008
5,452
29,003
Yeah, but it looks like the scariest part of a roller coaster…

p5JrDE9.gif
 
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C

cdmoore74

macrumors 68020
Jun 24, 2010
2,413
711
I love these articles. It's like what do you want first? The good news or the bad news?

Example:

The good news: Apple China pre-sold 100,000 iPhone's in 2 days since being available.

The bad news: This Chinese carrier has over 763 millon subscribers.
 
Michael Scrip

Michael Scrip

macrumors 604
Mar 4, 2011
7,929
12,480
NC
cdmoore74 said:
The good news: Apple China pre-sold 100,000 iPhone's in 2 days since being available.

The bad news: This Chinese carrier has over 763 millon subscribers.
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It's a long play. It's not like Apple will be selling iPhones on China Mobile for a couple weeks and then disappear.

No... Apple will be selling iPhones on China Mobile for the foreseeable future.

People seem to forget that the iPhone has been available on 2 major Chinese carriers for the last 4 years. Why would adding the 3rd major carrier ever be considered a bad thing?

I also remember hearing "if someone hasn't gotten an iPhone already... being on China Mobile won't persuade them"

Well with 100,000 pre-orders in the first 2 days on China Mobile... clearly there were some people who were interested. Do you think those are the only people EVER who will buy an iPhone on China Mobile? Of course not. Again... it's a long play.

Besides... these were pre-orders that you could only reserve online or by calling a hotline.

Let's see what happens when the iPhone is officially available on China Mobile January 17th.
 
K

karboN.6

macrumors regular
Oct 26, 2010
229
0
Ny
N64 said:
I'd actually consider an iTunes gift card a lame Christmas present. Too sterile. A sweater or something would be nicer.
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i hate getting them because i do not use itunes and i have 20$ just lying around...
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,561
6,059
tevion5 said:
Damn what sort of animation is that, HTML5 based? Because I can see it on my iphone :p
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Ha - no, it's a gif. WebKit's implementation of CSS-3 allows you to animate pngs, and Firefox supports apngs... AFAIK, there's no newer way of doing sprite animations on IE, and I don't know of any HTML5 technologies that let you do sprite animations (granted, nearly all of my web programming experience is with JS/JQ, not HTML or CSS.)

N64 said:
I'd actually consider an iTunes gift card a lame Christmas present. Too sterile. A sweater or something would be nicer.
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I disagree. Gift cards are very nice. I'm $20K in debt right now. I need money more than anything else. But asking for money is no fun. Your thank you card would look something like, "Thank you for the $100. I'm now only $19.9K in debt." With gift cards though, you can say, "I used the $100 Cheesecake Factory gift card to take my fiancé out on our anniversary - without you, we would have had ramen noodles for dinner."

I also got $100 towards Macy's. We used it to buy stuff off our registry. $25 towards iTunes - we'll buy music for the reception.

A sweater? I have a relative who knits things for everyone ever year. Don't get me wrong - I wear the mittens all the time, but I definitely prefer my North Face to any sweater she could knit.
 
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ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,561
6,059
[Forums had some kind of bug that made me double post... it took me to an error page saying I hadn't posted successfully, so I hit back and tried again and lo and behold, two identical posts back to back.]
 
gnasher729

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
N64 said:
I'd actually consider an iTunes gift card a lame Christmas present. Too sterile. A sweater or something would be nicer.
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Excuse me, but I prefer to buy my own clothing. When I get an iTunes gift card, I can use it to get exactly what I want. For the right person, it is the perfect gift.
 
M

mpantone

macrumors 6502
Mar 20, 2009
450
1
N64 said:
I'd actually consider an iTunes gift card a lame Christmas present. Too sterile. A sweater or something would be nicer.
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Yes, I'd rather receive negotiable bearer bonds or tax-free municipals.

:D

I have plenty of clothes, although I am happy to accept handmade items from family and close friends.

:)
 
G

grahamwright1

Cancelled
Feb 10, 2008
210
202
djtech42 said:
Hopefully developers who have been ripping people off with IAPs will learn their lesson.
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I think you are a little confused - nothing a developer does 'forces' a person to make an IAP.

Using an app and want to use a feature that requires an IAP? You make the decision as to whether the cost of the IAP makes sense to you, and if it does you make the purchase. If not, look for a different app that delivers the functionality you want at the price you are willing to pay.

Personally I prefer to pay for an app upfront rather than download a free app that exposes functionality through IAP's. The upside of the IAP model is where there are a range of different pieces of functionality the developer provides, and only a subset will be useful or desirable to many users. This isn't a rip-off in any way, but a logical way to deliver different functionality to different users.
 
gnasher729

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
grahamwright1 said:
Personally I prefer to pay for an app upfront rather than download a free app that exposes functionality through IAP's. The upside of the IAP model is where there are a range of different pieces of functionality the developer provides, and only a subset will be useful or desirable to many users. This isn't a rip-off in any way, but a logical way to deliver different functionality to different users.
Click to expand...

Example: GPS app with maps for different countries. Offering 20 maps, and I only want one (plus they take loads of space on the phone, so I wouldn't want the others even if they were free).
 
K

kyjaotkb

macrumors 6502a
Nov 20, 2009
937
883
London, UK
That's a really interesting article.
The 3x surge in app downloads in 2011, followed by a 2x surge in 2012 and a 1.5x surge in 2013 show one or several of those things:
- either the equipment market for Apple devices is saturating i.e. people who buy iOS devices already own iOS devices and renew the hardware, not the software.
- or people are getting less and less interested in discovering new apps... because they know enough apps they already own and don't feel the need to learn to use and pay for more apps that would cover uses they don't have - or perhaps because the app store has become too cluttered,
- or perhaps - provided these are WW stats - Xmas is not that important anymore and Chinese or Arabic customers (or any people who don't have anything to celebrate on Dec 25th), who don't have any different behaviour on Dec 25th, are starting to weigh heavily in the iOS user base.

Does anybody know? that is a really interesting subject to dig in...
 
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