It wasn’t all that long ago that we said goodbye to the “Android Market” and said hello to the “Play Store”, finally unifying all of Google’s online content offerings under one roof and, more importantly, under one brand. The Play Store arrived as a way to make Android users more willing to buy content and to try and better sell content. The Android Market was pretty confusing when you think about it – it suggested only Android apps but, now the Play Store has books, TV Shows, Films, Games and Music.
It’s been discovered that the Play Store’s revenue have risen a massive 137% year-on-year when compared with the same period from last year. In the first seven months of this year, the Play Store has seen a massive rise in revenue, which can only be a good thing, not only for consumers but those looking to set up shop in the Play Store. The problem with building an eco-system like this is that you need the content and iTunes is still carrying a lot more but, with figures like this it should hopefully prove that the Play Store is more than viable for content providers and developers.
There’s roughly 800 apps hitting the Play Store everyday and whilst there’s a hell of a lot that figure isn’t an all positive one. How many of those 800 apps do you think aren’t going to be any good? Realistically, a lot of the new apps that hit the Play Store are forgotten about within a week or so. Making it not only difficult for new developers to get a foothold but for users to find the good apps. App curation is something that Google has gotten better at but it’s something that must continue to improve upon if they want the Play Store to really shine.
I doubt that this huge revenue improvement has a whole lot to do with the Nexus 7 either, which is even more positive because if the store can do this on its own then imagine what it can do with an affordable and popular tablet like the Nexus behind it?