iPhone Apps v the rest: you get more for less with Apple

Thu, 11/12/2009 - 6:54am — Jonny Evans

Latest data from analytics firm, Distimo, suggests that not only do iPhone users have more apps to choose from, but, dollar for dollar, they get a whole lot more for the money.

While this may not be so great for developers in terms of making the most they can, the popularity of Apps on the iPhone mean iPhone users actually do purchase and use their apps.

In conjunction with this morning’s Gartner smartphone market share report, which pegs Apple as the third biggest smartphone vendor in 2009 with 17.1 per cent of the market, it’s clear there’s a lot to play for.

“Apple’s worldwide smartphone share reached 17 per cent as iPhone sales totalled 7 million units in the third quarter of 2009 following the continued rollout of the iPhone 3GS in new countries. Its ASP is holding steady and sales in the fourth quarter should be even stronger as Apple starts selling in China, through one additional carrier in the UK, and in an additional 16 countries,” the analysts said.

The Distimo report reveals:

Developers publishing applications in multiple application stores price their applications lowest on Apple’s App Store.
The same application titles are priced significantly higher on BlackBerry App World and Google Android Market than on the Apple App Store.
BlackBerry App World prices have been increasing since mid-October, from $5.11 to $5.60 (+9.6%), while pricing on the Apple App Store and Google Android Market have remained fairly stable.
The researchers found that the average price of the daily 100 highest-ranked apps on BlackBerry App World reached $5.33 as against the $2.50 average on the iPhone.

The researchers also note that switching on in-app purchasing has beefed-up the App Store. “Apple introduced support for in-app purchasing for free applications,” they said, “Since then, we have been monitoring all free in-app purchasing applications, and broke the 40 best performing applications down into the categories they were published in. Most of these applications were published in the Games and Social Networking categories (13 out of 40), followed by the categories Books and Entertainment.”

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Comments

This is incomplete (therefore meaningless) data

Thu, 11/12/2009 - 10:56am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

What is important is the cost to produce an app versus the revenue opportunity to sell the app. This "analysis" is only part of the data set required for meaningful analysis.

As a developer, I can say that the iPhone SDK offers the best development offering compared to other platforms. I have seen guys who have never programmed before even produce satisfactory apps ... I have not seen a non-dev write anything remotely functional on other platforms. The programming environment is easy, fast, powerful. iPhone is simply the most cost-effective development platform. In other words, I can offer more to customers at a lower cost to me!

On the sales end, the App Store is the undisputed king of sell-through. Apps are a primary value of the iPhone. Most other platform's users are still unaware of the app offerings. Every other distribution platform combined doesn't register versus the App Store's sales numbers. This is a simple statement of fact; I am not trying to venerate Apple/iPhone/App Store. App pricing by a developer is influenced by (1) the addressable market opportunity and (2) the competitive landscape on the distribution platform. The App Store has an enormous market of customers, but also is the most competitive on the supply side. It is Econ101 that the price is going to be lower; however, the iPhone App Store is the better overall revenue opportunity for developers. I speculate that being the #1 app on any other platform is analogous to being #100 (if not lower) on the App Store. I would much prefer to sell 1000 apps at $2.50 than 10 at $5.33.

This is incomplete (therefore meaningless) data

Thu, 11/12/2009 - 10:58am — 9to5Mac Noob (not verified)

What is important is the cost to produce an app versus the revenue opportunity to sell the app. This "analysis" is only part of the data set required for meaningful analysis.

Developer view?

Fri, 11/13/2009 - 1:29am — Jef Martens (not verified)

What is most important: for whom is it written?

This report and your comment show only partial views.

For customers, this is good to know that you could be cheaper off when buying a seemingly overpriced gadget, but winning on the portfolio of low-priced apps pushing lower TCO.

For developers, it gives an insight on how to price your work on which platform. Maybe keep in mind that you can 'easily' develop for a few platforms. Does it automatically mean that the quality is high? Search for 'poker' on any platform and you'll have to weed through a lot of rubbish.

For investors, these market figures show how markets are developing and where to invest in for development or content parties.

For market owners, you can distinguish what factors are influencing market success.

Please keep all viewpoints alive for discussion on how useful such market data is.

About cost effectivenss: how effective is learning Cocoa versus learning Java? Keep in mind that there are a lot more pieces of hardware that can work with Java software, including macs...