Forced to be free
It doesn't come as a great surprise to read, in Distimo's latest report, that the vast majority of the apps downloaded from Android are free. The proportion on iOS is much lower.
This is consistent with the philosophies of the two companies that own the platforms. Apple is all about charging money for desirable products while Google is about generating traffic by offering stuff for free, then selling ads against that traffic.
Of course Google bought the biggest mobile display ad company - Admob - a while ago, and is thus well positioned to serve ads against all these free apps and games, but it's not clear whether this provides equivalent revenues to developers who have more success selling their apps on iOS.
One of the issues developers face on Android is visibility for their apps, with the charts apparently refreshed much less frequently on Android. In other words, if you get to the top of an Android chart you're much more likely to stay there. And then there's the fact that the most popular free apps are often those made by Google itself - including the all time favourite - Google Maps.
This chart shows how many separate apps made it into the top ten and the top 300 of the respective charts. As you can see there were even fewer Android apps represented in the charts than on Ovi and WP7, with iOS well ahead of everyone.
Meanwhile Google will be further enthused by a study from Comscore, revealing the use of mobile financial services is on the rise in Europe. The table below shows the big five Western European countries and reveals the UK is close to the average on most counts.
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Mobile Financial Services |
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|
Penetration (%) of Mobile Subscribers |
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|
EU5 |
France |
Germany |
Italy |
Spain |
UK |
|
|
Accessed Bank Accounts |
8.5 % |
10.3 % |
6.8 % |
7.5 % |
10.1 % |
8.6 % |
|
Accessed Credit Cards |
5.1 % |
4.7 % |
3.4 % |
7.6 % |
6.5 % |
3.9 % |
|
Accessed Electronic Payments |
5.2 % |
3.7 % |
4.5 % |
6.9 % |
5.7 % |
5.4 % |
Comscore also noted that the typical mobile banking user in the EU 5 is male, young and has an iPhone.
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Profile of EU5 Mobile Users Accessing Bank Accounts |
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|
Mobile Subscribers (000) |
% of Mobile Subscribers |
Index to Total Mobile Pop* |
|
|
|
Total Audience: 13+ yrs old |
19,885 |
100.0% |
100 |
|
|
Gender |
|
|||
|
Male |
12,705 |
63.9% |
129 |
|
|
Female |
7,180 |
36.1% |
71 |
|
|
Age |
|
|
|
|
|
13-17 |
800 |
4.0% |
59 |
|
|
18-24 |
3,249 |
16.3% |
152 |
|
|
25-34 |
5,539 |
27.9% |
161 |
|
|
35-44 |
4,463 |
22.4% |
119 |
|
|
45-54 |
2,679 |
13.5% |
76 |
|
|
55+ |
3,156 |
15.9% |
56 |
|
|
Platform |
|
|
|
|
|
Smartphone |
13,788 |
69.3% |
201 |
|
|
Not Smartphone |
6,098 |
30.7% |
47 |
|
|
Apple |
5,475 |
27.5% |
393 |
|
|
|
2,737 |
13.8% |
245 |
|
|
Microsoft |
1,018 |
5.1% |
195 |
|
|
RIM |
940 |
4.7% |
151 |
|
|
Symbian |
3,279 |
16.5% |
110 |
|
*Index of 100 indicates average representation
This last table confirms that the UK is generally ahead of the curve when it comes to smartphone use.
|
Mobile Benchmark Data for the European Market |
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|
Reach (%) of Mobile Subscribers |
||||||
|
EU5 |
France |
Germany |
Italy |
Spain |
UK |
|
|
Sent Text Message |
82.4% |
82.8% |
78.8% |
79.7% |
80.9% |
90.0% |
|
Used Application (excl. pre-installed) |
30.3% |
28.1% |
26.5% |
28.4% |
29.6% |
39.3% |
|
Used Browser |
31.0% |
31.3% |
24.6% |
27.8% |
28.7% |
42.7% |
|
Listened to Music |
25.6% |
22.7% |
26.6% |
23.4% |
32.3% |
24.4% |
|
Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog |
19.8% |
19.5% |
13.3% |
18.3% |
18.1% |
30.2% |
|
Accessed News |
14.9% |
14.1% |
12.3% |
13.9% |
11.5% |
22.0% |
|
Played Games |
25.6% |
15.4% |
24.2% |
29.0% |
27.7% |
32.2% |
|
Used Smartphone |
34.5% |
30.4% |
27.6% |
37.9% |
39.8% |
39.2% |
