The iOS App Store is expected to remain the most lucrative app store around for at least the next five years, but according to a new report Google Play and various third-party Android stores are likely to overtake it in total revenue as early as this year.
The insight comes from app analysis company App Annie, which suggests that total worldwide mobile app store downloads will exceed 352 billion in 2021, while gross consumer spend across all app stores will surpass $139 billion.
Photo: App Annie
Not a fair comparison
Of course, as with any comparison between iOS and Android, it’s not really a fair fight. Not only is the report pitting the iOS App Store against the totality of Android app stores, but there are also way more Android devices. This is helped by the explosion of new low-end Android devices in emerging markets including India, Indonesia, Brazil, and others.
Even with the massive amounts of Android users, however, Google’s official Google Play app store can’t compare to iOS in terms of revenue. In 2017, the analysts expect the iOS App Store to achieve gross revenues of $40 billion from 30 billion downloads, next to Google Play’s $21 billion from 114 billion downloads.
The real growth is in the third-party stores, such as those from Xiaomi, Huawei, Amazon and others, where revenue is set to double to $20 billion this year, compared to “just” $10 billion last year.
Given that Apple takes a slice of every iOS app sold, it’s unlikely that Tim Cook and other Apple execs will be losing too much sleep. Apple customers are still way more likely to spend a greater amount of money on an individual basis, which is the reason that iOS continues to be the favored platform for developers wanting to develop high-quality apps.
Still, reports like this demonstrate how the explosion of Android devices around the world are helping reshape the mobile landscape. According to App Annie, China will continue to be the largest market for global mobile app store spend, exceeding $56 billion in 2021. Rapid smartphone adoption throughout Southeast Asia is also fueling downloads, with India’s downloads approaching 23 billion in 2021.
Even Apple has noted that China is likely to be the company’s future biggest market, and designs its devices accordingly.
You can check out the rest of App Annie’s report here. (Note: you’ll need to sign up to do so.)
