Google Play Downloads Passed App Store Downloads For the First Time in Q2

[inlinevolvo]

I had a few apps on Google Play last year and what an awful experience. Because they have a 100% refund policy for the first 2 hours after you buy an App (it might have changed but used to be a full 24 hours) I had 70% of my sales refunded to people, they would buy my app, watch the videos and look at the photos and then return it for a full refund. Ugh!

Look at photos and vids, what kinda app did you have, pron?

 

[chumpy34]

ugh wow, that's just awful. sorry to hear about that.

people with the mindset getting free apps with android or any other platform will goes to show that free apps rules, not so much with the revenue.
developers gotta pay the bills right

Thanks. Yes, pretty sucky. I am all for free apps as well but when you create a paid App (and spend the money/time to do so), you would hope to bring in some revenue and not have 70% get it for free. Terrible system. As I said, maybe they have changed this now, but as of late last year, they had not.

 

[Vanilla35]

Doesn't Apple have 54% market share and Android 43%?

You have the numbers mixed up. Android has roughly 52% and Apple has 43% as of the end of Q2 2013.

Do app updates count as a download?


Because Android supports auto-updating, while iOS 6.x doesn't.

No I really don't think that counts. Also, in iOS you only download the update for your app. In android you download the entire app again, no matter how small the update/change is. But download count shouldn't be influenced by update.

I have to say from experience, Android apps blow. I still have my Galaxy S II and love to the phone even now (don't like the new ones), perfectly sized 4.3 inch screen. But the apps blow. I had an experience 10x better on my ipod touch before I bought the S2, or an iPhone.

I'll even go as far as to list the top 10 games under the "free" section as of right now. To show how pathetic it is.

1. Candy Crush Saga
2. Despicable Me
3. Pet Rescue Saga
4. Robot Unicorn Attack 2
5. Subway Surfers
6. True or False - Test Your Wits
7. SpongeBob Diner Dash
8. Temple Run 2
9. What's the Phrase Free
10. Bubble Birds 3

If you go down to 22 you get "Solitaire"
And go down to 26 you get "Foot Spa - Kids games"

This is the "Top Free" apps category for games. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. If you go to games, you get "Top Paid" "Top Free" and "Top Grossing" (where you find all the obnoxious card games and build your own empire games).

 

[chumpy34]

Look at photos and vids, what kinda app did you have, pron?

Ha! No, no porn. It was a meditation app with how-to videos and photos and such and then one was a former NBA player teaching offensive skills and overall basketball skills. That was a cool app and does well on iTunes but we removed it from Google after so many "refunds" as it didn't make sense.

 

[Fynd]

Thanks. Yes, pretty sucky. I am all for free apps as well but when you create a paid App (and spend the money/time to do so), you would hope to bring in some revenue and not have 70% get it for free. Terrible system. As I said, maybe they have changed this now, but as of late last year, they had not.

I don't know if it's changed or not, but it's currently a 15 minute return policy not two hours.

 

[chumpy34]

I don't know if it's changed or not, but it's currently a 15 minute return policy not two hours.

Ah, 15 minutes is better than 2 hours or 48 hours, so hopefully they get to no refunds as it's just a pain for developers. If an App doesn't work, that's one thing but full refunds with no questions asked is a tough one...

 

[pgiguere1]

Does this mean google have more free apps ?

It means Android users are more likely to download free apps rather than paid ones, compared to iOS users. Tells nothing about the number of apps for each category.

 

[jasvncnt]

Maybe its just me...but when I see something like this I always think..so what. What does it matter.

 

[AppleMrHan]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the number of downloads is not a good reflection of an overall success of the store?

I am not surprised that Android passed Apple, it has like a million of cheap phones that are cheap and given out for free with even two year contract where as Apple only has iPhone. So, ofcourse it would surpass, I'm surprised it took so long.

On the other note, the second chart is much more indicative of overall success of the App Store.

Based on results of those two charts:

1. Android has more users but they are cheap and download only free apps.
2. Apple has fewer customers but they are not poor and spend quite a bit more on paid apps.

 

[ValSalva]

This was inevitable. There are so many junk Android phones being sold everywhere, especially in developing markets.

It's still way better to be an iOS developer.

 

[bushido]

You have the numbers mixed up. Android has roughly 52% and Apple has 43% as of the end of Q2 2013.



No I really don't think that counts. Also, in iOS you only download the update for your app. In android you download the entire app again, no matter how small the update/change is. But download count shouldn't be influenced by update.

I have to say from experience, Android apps blow. I still have my Galaxy S II and love to the phone even now (don't like the new ones), perfectly sized 4.3 inch screen. But the apps blow. I had an experience 10x better on my ipod touch before I bought the S2, or an iPhone.

I'll even go as far as to list the top 10 games under the "free" section as of right now. To show how pathetic it is.

1. Candy Crush Saga
2. Despicable Me
3. Pet Rescue Saga
4. Robot Unicorn Attack 2
5. Subway Surfers
6. True or False - Test Your Wits
7. SpongeBob Diner Dash
8. Temple Run 2
9. What's the Phrase Free
10. Bubble Birds 3

If you go down to 22 you get "Solitaire"
And go down to 26 you get "Foot Spa - Kids games"

This is the "Top Free" apps category for games. Pretty pathetic if you ask me. If you go to games, you get "Top Paid" "Top Free" and "Top Grossing" (where you find all the obnoxious card games and build your own empire games).

I love almost all of these on my IPHONE

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Their doomed what?

Not a real grammar rule. "Apple's" can mean "Apple is" or denote possession.

 

[Tknull]

When did Google buy MacRumors? Where's the story about Google essentially lying about N7 outselling iPads in Japan or Samsung cheating on benchmarks? And this constant bashing of Apple maps on MR is getting old.

Was wondering this as well. Saw those articles on another site... and looked for them on MacRumors and couldn't find any reference.

 

[Chrisg2014]

Kind of makes me happy. The only reason I switched ships was because I had Apple everything and I didn't like that. I have Apple computers and Android devices. My only problem is I can't group text. Other then that I love my phone. I'm glad to see android is doing good!

 

[tdmac]

I thought I remembered reading back when Google had their last developer conference that all of the Google pre-installed apps on the device are also counted in the to their reported total of "apps" purchased/downloaded thus far to devices. I know this is supposedly "Downloads" but wonder if that is still part of this mix and thus skew's things somewhat.

 

[Switchback666]

You have the numbers mixed up. Android has roughly 52% and Apple has 43% as of the end of Q2 2013.



No I really don't think that counts. Also, in iOS you only download the update for your app. In android you download the entire app again, no matter how small the update/change is. But download count shouldn't be influenced by update.

iOS delta update for apps started AFTER ios6 and Google enabled "smart update" (basically the same thing) way before ios6 released

 

[akbarali.ch]

Not surprising. There has been a huge exodus to android over the last few years. An increasing user-base attracts more devs, thus more apps.

Exodus ! i dont think so. see it likes this. i can say for India. there are a lot of people still using feature phone from Nokia Samsung Motorola. If these guys ever want to upgrade to smartphone and they are doing at an alarming rate, the most viable choice is android. Android starts from Rs.3000 (that's 50 US dollar) to fully own the device and there is an android phone model at every Rs.200 rise in the price. in about Rs.6000-8000 you can buy a decent (not for heavy gaming but all the ******** web service facebook,whatsapp, twitter, instagram etc etc etc). Compared to that, iphone5 starts at Rs.45500 (750 US dollar) LATEST model. Its way way out of reach of anybody.
I own iphone4S since 1.5yrs, but couldn't get enough to buy iphone5. but if i was on Android, i would've already bought at-least 2-3 phones in last 1.5yrs, its dirt cheap according to me.
So in all iphones market is somewhat steady but the rest of the non-smartphone guys are going more towards Android then iphone.

 

[Oletros]

I had a few apps on Google Play last year and what an awful experience. Because they have a 100% refund policy for the first 2 hours after you buy an App (it might have changed but used to be a full 24 hours) I had 70% of my sales refunded to people, they would buy my app, watch the videos and look at the photos and then return it for a full refund. Ugh!

Google Play has a 15 minutes refund window, not 2 hours

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Also, in iOS you only download the update for your app. In android you download the entire app again, no matter how small the update/change is. But download count shouldn't be influenced by update.

Wrong, Play Store released the incremental updates las summer, it is downloaded just what it is needed

 

[FoxMcCloud]

I do love being able to browse apps on the desktop browser, and click install and choose a device for it to go to. Also being able to buy and play music/movies/tv shows/books/magazines through the browser too is brilliant.

Apple needs to get their online act together I think. iCloud.com is a joke.

 

[Oletros]

Maybe its just me...but when I see something like this I always think..so what. What does it matter.

It only matters if you like "mine is bigger"arguments

 

[thisisdallas]

I'm not surprised given that Android phones have completely replaced all of the freebie feature phones for all carriers. All of those feature phone users will more than likely get some of the basics like instagram, twitter, facebook, and a few games like angry birds or candy crush.

Coming from Android, I bought one application and pirated the rest. Honestly the Google Play store is ridden with complete garbage. Finding a good app on that store is literally almost impossible. Heck, even most quality great apps on iOS are completely crappy since so many people are pirating, they just paste ads all over the place.

In short, if I were an app developer, I wouldn't likely even waste the funds on Android at this point. iOS is still where the money is at and will likely be that way until Google fixes pirating somehow.

 

[Oletros]

Coming from Android, I bought one application and pirated the rest. Honestly the Google Play store is ridden with complete garbage. Finding a good app on that store is literally almost impossible. Heck, even most quality great apps on iOS are completely crappy since so many people are pirating, they just paste ads all over the place.

Or how to make an argument unbelievable with hyperbole

 

[cmwade77]

The article is also talking about the fact that iOS brings more revenue than Google Play. I wonder if they take into account the fact that many of the software programs are cheaper on Android than on iOS.

For example, Tetris is $0.99-$1.99, depending on the day on iOS, while they give it away for free on Google Play. There are of course in-app purchases on both; however, there is that initial price difference that may factor into this.

----------

I'm not surprised given that Android phones have completely replaced all of the freebie feature phones for all carriers. All of those feature phone users will more than likely get some of the basics like instagram, twitter, facebook, and a few games like angry birds or candy crush.

Coming from Android, I bought one application and pirated the rest. Honestly the Google Play store is ridden with complete garbage. Finding a good app on that store is literally almost impossible. Heck, even most quality great apps on iOS are completely crappy since so many people are pirating, they just paste ads all over the place.

In short, if I were an app developer, I wouldn't likely even waste the funds on Android at this point. iOS is still where the money is at and will likely be that way until Google fixes pirating somehow.

I don't think piracy is as rampant as you seem to think it is. Bottom line is most people will pay for an App, if it is reasonably priced for what it does and is a good app.

 

[Dulcimer]

Their doomed what?

It's a contraction for "Apple is."

 

[blackhand1001]

The revenue for google play should include ad revenue generated from free apps as well. Googles ad services are vastly superior to Apples. Many apps that cost money are free on the play store because of this. Angry birds for example.