According to a report by mobile apps analytics firm App Annie, which shows Apple's App Store is ahead of Google's Play Store regarding revenue collection. Well, this has been a trend for long, App Store has forever remained on top regarding income, but the reports also predict a wave of change this year for Android.
The research firm predicts that Android will surpass iOS concerning app revenue generation this year. However, there are contributing factors to this prediction; App Annie is saying this after amalgamating third-party Android app stores. For standalone Google's Play Store performance, it will still stay behind Apple's App Store for quite a long time. It could only take the lead when third-party downloads are also valued. Whereas, App Store's individual earning way more than Play Store. And it will continue its leads until the year 2021 or farther.
App Annie states that Apple's App Store is going to remain the individual most successful app store throughout the prediction period. It will collect more than $60 billion in gross earnings in 2021. The cumulative income of Google's Play Store and third-party Android app stores shall overtake App Store in 2017 because of their stronger market presence and installed app base.
Notably, the third-party Android app stores earned $10 billion as revenue, last year. App Annie expects this number to reach $20 billion this year. Third-party Android app stores also include apps from Baidu, Huawei, Tencent, Xiaomi, and others. One of the main reasons behind the growth in third-party Android stores is China along with other growing markets like Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia.
Regarding Android app revenue, the US, China, Japan, South Korea, and the UK are projected to contribute 85% to the revenue, which is a 10% jump from the year 2016. For downloads, markets like China, India, U.S., Brazil, and Indonesia contributed 54 percent last year, and that number is going to stay stable through the year 2021, as per App Annie's projections. Also, App Annie portends that global app downloads would cross 352 billion in 2021 while revenue could hit $139 billion mark. Apple's App Store will constitute the larger part of the revenue in 2021, which will bring its income to more than $60 billion during 2021.
Want to know more about the app market predictions? You can check out the entire report here.
