Google and Apple are engaged in a constant battle in the mobile application marketplace in an attempt to overcome one another in both downloads and revenues. With each quarter statistics and numbers are published, and over recent quarters Google has been showing prominent gains. While the revenues generated from the Apple App Store were still ahead of Google in the published reports, Google did manage to shorten the earnings gap. More importantly, Google pulled ahead of the Apple App Store beating them in total application downloads in the Google Play Store.
The first quarterly app store reports have been published for 2015 however, and the landscape has changed quite a bit. Interestingly enough Google pulled even farther ahead of the Apple App Store in terms of total downloaded applications. In terms of revenue, the Apple App Store appears to have reversed the trend Google had accomplished of catching up on this front. According to the report, Apple extended its lead in App Store revenues to a 10% lead ahead of Google. These numbers were all published from the quarterly results of the U.S. marketplace, and the global report demonstrates even bleaker numbers for Google. Apple’s global App Store revenues were approximately 70% higher than Google Play earnings, a 10% increase over the third quarter of 2014. Application downloads from global app stores have again put Google in the lead mirroring Apple’s lead in revenues of 70%.
Deeper analysis of the report yields information pointing to the U.S. and more notably China for Apples dominance in revenues, and towards emerging markets such as Turkey, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico for Google’s lead in total application downloads. China has really made the most impact for Apple, especially with the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in the country. In just this first quarter alone, China has already shot ahead of the U.S. as the number one source of iOS application downloads. This is a stark contrast from Google which does not officially operate Google Play in China. Overall these numbers show that while Google is penetrating the market quite well in terms of Android distribution and application downloads, they are experiencing a smaller number of users actually willing to spend money on that content. Google has been working on several methods to help developers increase earnings. Hopefully throughout 2015 Google can implement even more measures to aid developers in application sales.