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A new report indicates that Apple's iOS App Store revenues were 80 per cent higher than Google's Play's gross numbers.
OPINION: Spending inside the iOS App Store and Google Play continued to grow in the first half of 2019, but not as quickly as previous years.
According to a new report from Sensor Tower, a leading provider of market intelligence and insights for the global app economy, the combined stores brought in US $39.7 billion in revenue in the first six months of 2019.
While this represents a 15.4 per cent jump from last year's numbers, momentum is actually slowing. Comparatively, in the first six months of 2018 revenue was up 27.8 per cent.
This all suggests that spending on apps stores is starting to cool.
The report offers some context to what's happening in the market right now. And yep, you've already guessed it. It's China's fault.
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Spending inside the iOS App Store and Google Play continued to grow in the first half of 2019, but not as quickly as previous years.
Where China was directly responsible for the growth spurt in previous years, the slowing uptake of iOS is also responsible for the slowdown this year. Which implies the app market will likely slow down further if the US-China trade war continues.
But there are also other factors at play. Netflix is now forcing users to sign up via its website rather than offering an option inside iOS and Android apps — to avoid paying Apple and Google a large (recurring) percentage of its monthly revenues. However, these factors have a much smaller bearing on the market compared to China's influence.
The silver lining to all this is that mobile gaming, an area that both Apple (Apple Arcade) and Google (Google Stadia) have invested heavily in, saw good growth. The sector was up 11.3 percent year on year, bringing in US$29.6b across the two apps stores.
Oh, and by the way, the report indicates that Apple's iOS App Store revenues were 80 per cent higher than Google's Play's gross numbers.
Sensor Tower estimates that Apple earned US$25.5b in the first half of 2019, a 13.2 per cent increase on 2018. While Google Play is estimated to have earned nearly 10bn less at just US $14.2b.
