Andre Yoskowitz
22 Apr 2013 23:15
According to new market research, Google Play Store revenues are growing at a much faster pace than Apple, but Apple remains the dominant store in overall sales.
For the first quarter of 2013, all mobile app stores brought in $2.2 billion in revenue, with Apple's App Store accounting for 74 percent of that, at $1.48 billion. Google Play amounted to 18 percent. A second report claims the numbers are different, with Android taking 38.5 percent share. Regardless, Apple still dominates.
Google Play revenue jumped 90 percent quarter-over-quarter, easily beating Apple's 25 percent growth.
"Although Google is catching up, Apple has such a head-start in revenues that, on present trends, we would not expect Google to overtake Apple until sometime in 2016," said Daum, chief analyst at Canalys (via Reuters).
Most of the revenue gap is do to one simple fact; Android offers more games and apps for free than Apple's store does. Additionally, it is much easier to pirate apps on Android.