Though there are more smartphone users on Android-based devices than iPhones in the U.S., Apple's App Store for iPhone generates four times as much revenue than the Google Android Market, according to a Wednesday report from Distimo.
Apple iPad and iPhone App Store purchases beat the Android Market in terms of the total revenue generated by the 200 highest-grossing apps, Distimo said in its 2011 App Year in Review. Helping this growth is in-app purchases.
"2011 was the year where in-app purchases and the freemium business model became one of the most important monetization strategies for developers," Distimo concluded. "Half of the revenue of the 200 top grossing apps in the Apple App Store for iPhone is now generated by freemium apps. This proportion is even higher in the Google Android Market where 65 percent of the revenue from the top grossing apps is generated by freemium apps."
Freemium refers to apps that are free to download, but include a paid component within—download a game for free but purchase extra powers or supplies while playing, for example.
In-app purchases have been available via Apple's App Store since October 2009, though after its iOS 4.3 update, users were required to enter their passwords before making in-app purchases. In-app purchases via BlackBerry App World went live in September 2010, but it was not available for Android until March.
Distimo said App Store downloads "increased dramatically" in China this year. Compared to the U.S., China makes up 30 percent of iPhone downloads and 44 percent of iPad downloads.
Not surprisingly, downloads slowed a bit right before Apple unveiled a new device, like the iPad 2 in February and the iPhone 4S in October. But they "immediately increased" again after the new devices hit the market and users loaded them up with more apps.
Most app stores, meanwhile, increased the number of available downloads this year, with Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace showing the most growth at 400 percent. Last month, reports suggested that the Windows app market had about 40,000 apps about a year after its debut.
All together, the top seven app stores—Amazon AppStore, App Store for iPad, App Store for iPhone, BlackBerry App World, Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, and Windows Phone Marketplace—offer more than one million apps, Distimo said. That's not too surprising since recent reports put the App Store around 600,000 apps and the Android Market at 500,000.
Distimo said the Android Market, however, is now the largest app store for free apps, surpassing Apple in June.
What are people downloading? Gaming apps downloads are "most robust and thus the most important," Distimo said. "The games category is the single largest app category in most stores, and also generates the most downloads as well."
There are 79,077 games available for iPhone, 46,045 for the Android Market, and 28,683 for the iPad, Distimo said. The Windows Phone Marketplace, however, has "shown impressive growth in terms of the number of available games," outpacing the Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World this year. Five months after its launch, the Amazon AppStore has also surpassed Nokia and RIM on games.
"Having had a few exclusive game releases (Angry Birds Rio, Plants vs. Zombies, etc.), the Amazon Appstore will be an interesting store to watch in 2012," Distimo said.
Distimo also posted its top 10 apps of the year by number of downloads, three of which were versions of Angry Birds. They include: Angry Birds; Facebook; Skype; Angry Birds Rio; Google Maps; iBooks; Angry Birds Seasons; Fruit Ninja; Talking Tom Cat; and Twitter.
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