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Distimo Publication February 2011
Distimo Publication February 2011
Distimo was founded to solve the challenges created by a widely fragmented app store marketplace filled
with equally fragmented information and statistics.
Distimo was launched shortly after the introduction of the first app store. App stores have clearly shown
since that time that they are the way forward for content distribution. The app store model offers an
enormous opportunity for developers to get their content out and dramatically improves content discovery
by consumers. However, the mobile market has long been characterized by fragmentation, which is
also displayed in the wide range of mobile application stores that were launched from 2009 on.
Distimo is a privately held company based in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Learn more: www.distimo.com
• Less than two months after the launch of the Mac App Store, a top 300 Mac application
already generates half the revenue of a top 300 iPad application on average.
• The average selling price of the top 300 applications is seven times higher in the
Mac App Store ($11.21) than on the iPhone ($1.57) and almost three times higher
than on the iPad ($4.19).
• The Mac App Store has 2,225 applications available in the store approximately
two months post-launch. Comparatively, the Apple App Store for iPad had 8,099
applications two months post-launch.
• Although on the Mac gaming has been less popular than on Windows, the Mac App
Store promises a bright future for Mac gaming: there are already 646 games in this
store (29%), and 39% of the most popular applications are games as well.
• The proportion of free applications in the Mac App Store is lower than in any of the
other application stores analyzed in this report: only 12% of the applications are
free.
• The 300 most popular free and 300 most popular paid applications in the three
Apple application platforms (iPhone, iPad and Mac App Store) are published by
1,014 publishers in total. 173 publishers distribute applications in more than one
of these stores (17%), the Mac App Store being one of these stores in 49 cases (5%).
MAC
free paid
This month’s publication examines how the Apple app ecosystem is performing, and
focuses specifically on how the Apple App Store for iPad, the Apple App Store for iPhone
and the Mac App Store compare to each other in terms of content, popular genres,
download volumes and revenue.
As of February 2011, the Apple App Store for iPhone is still the store with most content
with 314,644 applications. Two months after its launch on January 6 2011, the Mac App
Store has 0.7% of the available content in the Apple App Store for iPhone with 2,225
applications in the United States. Comparatively, the Apple App Store for iPad had 8,099
applications in its catalog in May 2010, two months after its launch on April 3 2010. An
interesting difference is the proportion of free versus paid applications. The free/paid
ratio is 35%/65% for iPhone apps. 29% of all applications are free in the Apple App Store
for iPad, while in the Mac App Store the proportion of free applications is dramatically
lower where only 12% of the applications are free.
Note that all numbers mentioned in this report cover February 2011 data. Currently, the Mac App Store has
2,674 available applications in the United States (March 15 2011).
$500,000
250000
$250,000
0 $0
We examined both downloads and revenue of the three Apple platforms: iPhone, iPad
and the Mac Store. Of the top 300 most popular paid applications downloaded in
February, the iPhone has by far the most applications downloaded every day. The top
300 paid in the United States generates 5.6 times more downloads than the top 300
paid in the Apple App Store for iPad. The number of top 300 paid downloads in the
Apple App Store for iPad is 5.3 times as high than in the Mac App Store.
Looking at the revenue these applications generate, we find that the stores are more
alike. The top applications on iPhone generate 2.1 times the revenue of top applications
on the iPad. The top paid applications on the iPad in turn generate 2.0 times the revenue
of top paid applications in the Mac App Store.
The differences in the ratio of downloads and the ratio of revenue is captured in the
average selling price of top 300 applications in the different stores: $1.57 on iPhone,
$4.19 on iPad and $11.21 in the Mac App Store.
Note that these graphs only represent downloads of top 300 paid applications. Since
the number of available applications is different in each store, the ratio of downloads
between different stores cannot be generalized to the whole store, but only represent
the most popular applications.
60%
IPAD
50%
IPHONE
40%
MAC
30%
20%
10%
0%
This graph represents the category breakdown of the 100 most popular free and paid
applications during February 2011. Games is the most popular category across all three
Apple platforms, including the Mac, which traditionally has been little used for gaming.
In the Mac App Store, gaming is still less popular than on the iPhone and iPad, with iPad
having over 50% more games listed among the most popular applications than the Mac
App Store. However, the popularity of games in the Mac App Store combined with the
fact that there are already 646 games in the the store, signals the Mac App Store could
boost Mac gaming.
Additionally, some categories in the Mac App Store simply don’t exist in the iOS App
Stores. These categories – Developer Tools, Graphics & Design, and Video – make up
7% of the most popular applications. Applications in the Music and Utilities categories
are also significantly more popular in the Mac App Store than in its iOS counterparts for
iPhone and iPad.
IPAD MAC
IPAD
IPAD MAC
MAC
It is interesting to examine whether popular publishers on one of the iOS platforms are
also popular in the Mac App Store. We looked at the top applications in all of Apple’s
applications stores in order to analyze this (300 most popular free and 300 most
popular paid applications*). A total of 1,014 distinct publishers have applications in
these top application charts of which 841 publishers have top applications in only one
of the three stores. The other 173 publishers have top applications in stores as shown
in the graph above.
It shows there are more publishers with top applications in both the Mac App Store and
the App Store for iPad than publishers with top applications in both the Mac App Store
and the App Store for iPhone: this month popular iPad publishers were more successful
in the Mac App Store than popular iPhone publishers.
* The Mac App Store had only 272 free applications at the end of February 2010, therefore the top 272 free
applications are taken into account for this store.
The Daily
1 News free
by The Daily Holdings, Inc.
TinkerBox Games-Educational,
4 free
by Autodesk Inc. Games-Puzzle
iBooks
7 Books free
by Apple®
Games-Family,
8 Holes and Balls by AudioGuidia free
Games-Puzzle
Penultimate
2 Productivity $0.99 - $1.99
by Cocoa Box Design LLC
Pages
3 Productivity $9.99
by Apple®
Weather HD
6 Weather $0.99
by vimov, LLC
Keynote
10 Productivity $9.99
by Apple®
Google Translate
1 Reference free
by Google
Facebook
8 Social Networking free
by Facebook
JellyCar 3 Games-Arcade,
7 $0.99
by Disney Games-Puzzle
Camera+
10 Photography $0.99 - $1.99
by tap tap tap
McSolitaire Entertainment,
2 free
by PCV Games
Alpine Crawler
3 Games free
by Dimension Technics
Mixxx
4 Entertainment, Music free
by Mixxx Development Team
Pages
3 Business, Productivity $19.99
by Apple®
Braid Entertainment,
4 $1.99 - $9.99
by Hothead Games Inc. Games
iMovie
5 Photography, Video $14.99
by Apple®
Sparrow
7 Productivity, Utilities $9.99
by Sparrow
Keynote
9 Business, Productivity $19.99
by Apple®
Poynt
4 Maps & Navigation free
by Poynt Corporation
Pandora
5 Music & Audio free
by Pandora Media, Inc.
Navita Translator
10 Travel free
by Navita Tecnologia
PhotoClub [...]
1 Photo & Video $6.99
by MMMOOO
Color Woody V2
7 Themes $4.99
by MMMOOO
Gmail
1 Communication free
by Google Inc.
Androidify
6 Entertainment free
by Google Inc.
T-Mobile My Account
7 Tools free
by T-Mobile USA
Google Earth
10 Travel & Local free
by Google Inc.
Tasker
9 Tools, Widgets $6.43 - $7.24
by Crafty Apps
ADWLauncher EX
10 Productivity $3.14
by AnderWeb
Angry Birds
1 Arcade & Action free
by Rovio Mobile Ltd.
Solitaire
2 Cards & Casino free
by Ken Magic
Jewels
3 Casual free
by MHGames
Paper Toss
7 Casual free
by Backflip Studios Inc.
Unblock Me FREE
9 Brain & Puzzle free
by Kiragames
X Construction Lite
10 Brain & Puzzle free
by CrossConstruct
Robo Defense
1 Arcade & Action $2.99
by Lupis Labs Software
X Construction
2 Brain & Puzzle $1.36
by CrossConstruct
Fruit Ninja
3 Arcade & Action $1.20
by Halfbrick Studios
Doodle Jump
4 Arcade & Action $0.00 - $0.99
by GameHouse
Jewellust
5 Brain & Puzzle $2.95
by Smartpix Games
Fishin' 2 Go (FULL)
9 Arcade & Action $2.25
by CyxB
YouTube
2 Entertainment free
by YouTube
Gems Classic
4 Games-Arcade free
by Lunagames
ForecaWeather Free
5 News & Info free
by Foreca Ltd
Snaptu
6 Social Networks free
by Snaptu
SPB TV
7 Entertainment free
by SPB Software
Hangman
9 Games-Puzzle free
by Spice
Contour Silver
10 Themes free
by IND190 by IND190
ThreadSMS Standard
2 Utilities $4.99
by EHandySoft
ThreadSMS Standard
3 Utilities $4.99
by EHandySoft
Calm Fire
5 Wallpapers $0.00 - $0.99
by Inode
FingerPrint-V2.8
6 Entertainment $2.99
by ThinkChange
Angry Birds
7 Games-Arcade $1.99
by RovioMobile
Neon Butterfly
8 Themes $0.99
by Mobstar Media
Farm Frenzy
9 Games-Arcade $1.99
by HeroCraft
Panter HQ theme
10 Themes $0.00 - $0.99
by intheme c.studio
Facebook
1 Social Networking free
by Palm, Inc.
Pandora Radio
2 Music free
by Pandora
Fall-E
3 Games free
by Karge Software
foursquare
7 Social Networking free
by Zhephree
Putki
8 Games free
by Alphapolygon
Fantastic Wallpaper
10 Entertainment free
by Appwill Inc.
Angry Birds
1 Games $1.99
by Rovio Mobile Ltd
FlashCards
3 Education $4.99
by James Harris
drPodder
5 Entertainment $0.99
by Jamie Hatfield
Sports Live!
10 Sports $7.99
by More Solutions, LLC
YouTube
1 Music & Video free
by Microsoft Corporation
Adobe® Reader®
3 Productivity free
by Adobe Systems Inc.
Shazam
10 Music & Video free
by Shazam Entertainment Ltd
Aside from this free monthly publication, Distimo produces custom reports capable
of providing specific mobile application store analytics that are relevant to your
company. Custom reports are currently available for any country worldwide for the
Apple App Store for iPhone, Apple App Store for iPad, Apple Mac App Store, BlackBerry
App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog, Windows
Phone 7 Marketplace. Additional application stores will be available in the coming
months. To get a better idea of the type of data and metrics that Distimo can provide,
please visit our Report product page.
CONTACT US
For sales enquiries, please contact Remco van den Elzen, VP Business Development at
remco@distimo.com or call +31 64 497 8773. For press enquiries please contact
Mindy M. Hull at mindy@mercuryglobalpartners.com or call +31 62 504 7680 (EU) or
+1 415 889 9977 (USA).
ABOUT DISTIMO
Distimo was founded to solve the challenges created by a widely fragmented app store
marketplace filled with equally fragmented information and statistics.
Distimo was launched shortly after the introduction of the first app store. App stores
have clearly shown since that time that they are the way forward for content distribution.
The app store model offers an enormous opportunity for developers to get their content
out and dramatically improves content discovery by consumers. However, the mobile
market has long been characterized by fragmentation, which id also displayed in the
wide range of mobile application stores that were launched from 2009 on.
Distimo is a privately held company based in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Learn more:
www.distimo.com
Disclaimer
This work is licensed under Creative Commons License “Attribution Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Netherlands”. This license is available for download at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/nl/.
This license ables you to use, copy, spread, and build upon this work non-commercially, as long as you credit
Distimo and license your new creations under the identical terms.