Is Google Play as Popular as the App Store?

For the past five years, Apple’s App Store has ruled the mobile market in terms of the variety of applications available and the number of users visiting the store for downloading the apps. Apple, known as the pioneer of the modern mobile application market, has been responsible for making smartphone apps popular among the masses and creating a whole new unit of the IT industry. But if the current market reports are to be believed, Apple may no longer be at the helm after the emergence of Google Play.

 

In a report published by Bloomberg Businessweek, it has been stated that Apple Inc is gradually losing its numero uno position and popularity to smartphone apps manufactured by Google Inc. The report says that while the sales of Android apps from Google Play doubled in this fourth quarter, the revenue generated by iOS app sales from the App Store climbed by only 20 percent.

 

But has Google been successful enough to surpass the popularity of even the App Store? According to most mobile analysts, the best mobile companies of the world and the most influential enterprises still prefer to use iOS mobile applications as opposed to Android apps. Though the revenue generated from software sales at the Google Play is rising steadily, it is considerably behind the mobile revolution started by Apple’s App Store. However, it would only be fair to say that the rate of growth of Android app usage has been so high that it has led to the rising popularity of Google Play in the app economy. At the last count taken in October 2012, both the App Store and Google Play hosted 700,000 apps that were also available for sale or download. With iOS mobile applications still generating at least 3.5 times more revenue when compared with Android apps, there is little doubt about the fact that Apple has its niche audience and Google Play is yet to catch up to the popularity of the App Store.

 

Copper Mobile is a well known mobile app developer firm with its headquarters in Dallas, US. With its strong domain knowledge and technical expertise of mobile application developers, Coopper Mobile helps enterprises in getting the power of mobility.

 

Asia Dominates App Store and Google Play Revenue Charts

Asia is in love with iOS and Android mobile applications. According to the fiscal reports released by App Store and Google Play at the end of January, China, Japan, and Korea have defeated even the US in terms of app usage from the Android and iOS stores. While Japan featured at the top of the list among nations that contributed to the Google Play revenues, Korea followed shortly behind. China, on the other hand, is now among the top six countries to be featured on the revenue charts of the Apple App Store. This is indicative of a clear trend in the world mobile market; it means that Asia is the most dominating region when it comes to usage of tablet and smartphone application stores.

 

In a latest report, it has been stated that while the US was the clear winner among nations using software technology, Asia is emerging as its successor, if the current economics is to be taken into consideration.  The strength of Asia and its subcontinent in the mobile app market has also forced software developers and app publishers to alter their international strategy.

 

The report claims that Asians have a strong liking for gaming apps and therefore this type of software sells the highest from Google Play and App Store. Keeping in mind the ever increasing demand, 75 percent new cellular ideas will be sold in Asia in the near future.