Examples keep appearing of how Apple is able to squeeze more revenue from its iPhone and iPad than rival Android. The latest data shows Apple’s App Store earned 3.5 times more than Android’s Google Play in December. Did I mention this happened despite Google Play doubling its quarterly revenue? The reason, according to App Annie, is the iPhone 5 and iPad mini – both popular holiday gifts and natural driver of App Store sales…
Although no revenue numbers were released, the research firm said the App Store income grew one-fifth between the third-quarter and the fourth-quarter of 2012.
December was a record month for the App Store, revenue increasing by one-third, an increase topping the November to December 2012 figure. Apple has said it earned about $333 per month between June and December.
The report also noted that the U.S., Japan, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada accounted for 60 percent of App Store revenue in the fourth quarter. China, however, is quickly climbing the chart, becoming the sixth most important revenue source for the App Store, behind Canada.
Apple remains the most-downloaded App Store publisher while Electronic Arts leads monthly revenue, according to the research firm. We may see another boost similar to December next month, when Apple is expected to released a 128GB iPad 4.
Speaking to Bloomberg, App Annie researchers forecast that we’ll see more developers releasing cross-platform apps benefiting both Apple and Android.
But then again, we knew already that Apple users are willing to pay for quality while with Android, everything is more focused on the ad-driven freemium model.