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Who reigns supreme in the battle between Google Play and Apple's IOS App Store?
The smartphone is now the mobile device of choice for people across much of the world, and this also means that ever-increasing numbers are downloading apps to use on them. The big rivals in this area are Google Play, which provides apps for Android smartphone users, and the App Store, which is for Apple phones. In many ways there is little between them – they even launched within a few months of one another in 2008 – but which of them is leading the mobile app market?
It is difficult to give a definitive answer to this, because both platforms dominate in different areas. If you look at things in terms of sheer market share, there doesn’t seem to be much doubt, with a billion Android devices set to be sold this year, compared with 700 million Apple smartphones (http://www.informit.com/blogs/blog.aspx?uk=The-Fight-for-The-Mobile-App-Market-Android-vs-iOS). This is translating into greater app downloads for Google Play, with a report from App Annie summarised at http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/15/google-play-still-tops-ios-app-store-downloads-and-now-narrowing-revenue-gap-too/ showing that Google enjoyed 45% greater downloads in Q1. This is due to the rapid growth of the Android smartphone market, both in established places like the UK and US (a 55% rise in the US alone during this period) and in places like Mexico, Brazil and Turkey. However, despite all this, it is the App Store that still brings in the most revenue, with $5.1 million generated per day, compared with $1.1 billion for Google Play. An example of an app that has entered the large sports betting market is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sports.predictor which shows how much potential there is for revenue in such markets which are growing due to online access on numerous technological devices.
This means that all is far from being lost for Apple, although Google appears to be catching them in terms of revenue. The key for Apple lies with ensuring that it can remain the first port of call for top app developers (http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/the-iphone-and-ipad-may-be-losing-their-enterprise-luster-248224), as it cannot match Android’s market share. This remains a finely poised fight between two giants and, with the sales of smartphone apps growing at a spectacular pace, it is impossible to say for certain which of them will eventually come out on top.
It is difficult to give a definitive answer to this, because both platforms dominate in different areas. If you look at things in terms of sheer market share, there doesn’t seem to be much doubt, with a billion Android devices set to be sold this year, compared with 700 million Apple smartphones (http://www.informit.com/blogs/blog.aspx?uk=The-Fight-for-The-Mobile-App-Market-Android-vs-iOS). This is translating into greater app downloads for Google Play, with a report from App Annie summarised at http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/15/google-play-still-tops-ios-app-store-downloads-and-now-narrowing-revenue-gap-too/ showing that Google enjoyed 45% greater downloads in Q1. This is due to the rapid growth of the Android smartphone market, both in established places like the UK and US (a 55% rise in the US alone during this period) and in places like Mexico, Brazil and Turkey. However, despite all this, it is the App Store that still brings in the most revenue, with $5.1 million generated per day, compared with $1.1 billion for Google Play. An example of an app that has entered the large sports betting market is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sports.predictor which shows how much potential there is for revenue in such markets which are growing due to online access on numerous technological devices.
This means that all is far from being lost for Apple, although Google appears to be catching them in terms of revenue. The key for Apple lies with ensuring that it can remain the first port of call for top app developers (http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/the-iphone-and-ipad-may-be-losing-their-enterprise-luster-248224), as it cannot match Android’s market share. This remains a finely poised fight between two giants and, with the sales of smartphone apps growing at a spectacular pace, it is impossible to say for certain which of them will eventually come out on top.
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