Mobile App Market 2011: results

Distimo summed up the results of the year in the mobile application market and shared the results of the study with the press.

More than one million apps are available for download in seven existing markets. The leader among the mobile app markets in almost all indicators is the App Store. 

According to the analytical company Distimo, the App Store in the iPhone version earns four times more than the Android Market. The total revenue of the App Store in the iPad version exceeds the figures of the Android Market by two times.

Of the 200 most profitable applications, half are distributed on a freemium-based basis. The share of such applications in the Android Market is even greater – 65%.

On the iPhone, the number of applications using internal microtransactions increased from 29% in January to 53% in September this year, and then slowly declined.

In terms of the number of free apps, the Android Market surpassed the App Store back in June 2011. Analysts believe that developers will finally abandon the standard monetization scheme in favor of freemium on the Android platform.

All markets, except the App Store, have grown at least twice in a year. The new Microsoft store has grown by 400%. About 35 thousand applications are already available on it.

The largest share of the market is occupied by games. They are also the most popular among users. There are about 79 thousand games on the iPhone, there are slightly fewer of them on Android – 46 and a little thousand. There are just under 29,000 games for iPad.

Distimo analysts also note that now not only the American, but also the Chinese application market can be classified as a priority. China generates 18% of all downloads. In November, China generated about 30% of the American share of downloads on the iPhone and about half of downloads on the iPad.

Distimo also published the top most downloaded apps for 2011 among all platforms.