Mobile Application Market Research: Developers are busy, income is meager.

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Tencent Science and Technology (Beckham) Beijing time August 11 News, according to foreign media reports, "Forbes" website published articles, compared with Apple iOS, Google (micro-bo) Android and Microsoft Windows Phone three mobile platforms in the application development of data, found that no matter which platform, The direct revenue that developers gain from application sales is meager, for example, with an average of less than 2 cents of revenue per Android app download.

The following are the main contents of the article:

Over the past few years, there has been an unprecedented enthusiasm for the development of iOS and Android mobile applications. But according to the installed user base of each mobile platform and the payment information of different companies, most developers have a meager income in this area.

The industry is widely believed that Google with 900 million users dominate the mobile market, Apple with 600 million iOS users followed by Microsoft ranked third, Windows phone handset sales of about 12 million (81% by Nokia).

Every mobile platform wants to attract application developers, and each company will show its market size in different ways.

Apple said at its WWDC World Developers Conference that the app store already has 1.25 million apps, up to 50 billion downloads, and has paid developers 5 billion dollars. It is a matter of pride for Apple to pay such a sum to the developer community, and sources close to Apple say the figure is close to the amount actually paid to the developer, according to the company's internal data from Apple's App store.

On Google I/O, the world's largest Android developer conference, Google says its Google Play store has more than 800,000 apps from 150,000 developers. Although Google did not disclose the application's revenue levels, recent financial reports showed that Google paid developers about $900 million trillion, while outside research analysts said the Google Play store's app downloads were about 48 billion times closer to Apple's published figures.

Meanwhile, Microsoft says its App store has 160,000 apps from 45,000 developers. In a recent interview, Microsoft executives said the average user downloaded 54 apps, which allowed Microsoft to download up to 650 million applications. Although Microsoft did not disclose the performance data for the mobile sector, it speculated that about $100 million trillion in spending since 2011 should be attributed to the App Store, based on the accounts payable before and after the launch of the App Store mentioned in the Microsoft 10-q report in the past few quarters.

Based on these data, we can summarize the following:

* Number of users: Google 900 million, Apple 600 million, Microsoft 12 million

* Number of applications: Google 800,000, Apple 1.25 million, Microsoft 160,000

* Number of developers: Google 150,000, Apple 235,000, Microsoft 45,000

* Application download: Google 48 billion times, Apple 50 billion times, Microsoft 650 million times

* Paid to developers: Google 900 million dollars, Apple 5 billion dollars, Microsoft 100 million dollars

Obviously, Apple wins in terms of application totals and developer revenue, but it needs to be sure how much money the developers actually make through these platforms.

Each download brings a meager income

Based on the above data, we can calculate the average number of applications per developer, and the revenue that can be obtained through these applications. Of course, because a small number of developers do extremely well, and most developers fail, we can only calculate averages here.

* Average number of applications per developer: Google 5, Apple 5, Microsoft 3

* Average number of downloads per app: Google 60,000 times, Apple 40,000 times, Microsoft 4,062 Times

* Average revenue per download: Google 0.01875 USD, Apple 0.1 USD, Microsoft 0.1538 USD

According to this data, the average developer is very busy, they want to develop 3 to 5 applications. Interestingly, Android is the average number of downloads per app, but this advantage is largely offset by low income, with an average of 2 cents per Android app download. Apple is 5 times times more powerful than Android, with an average of 10 cents per download. But Microsoft's platform seems to be more effective, each download can give developers 15 cents, but this advantage is less than offset by the download, Microsoft average of each application download the equivalent of two other platforms 10% or even less.

The average retail price for each paid application is $0.99 trillion, which shows the impact of free application on average income. Android is the leader in free apps, which has a big impact on the average developer's revenue, while Microsoft's Windows platform is a small percentage of free apps, which is an advantage.

But how much does that affect real income?

Impact on developer Wallets

By multiplying the average revenue per application by the number of apps downloaded, we know the average amount of revenue each developer can earn through one application. Multiply this number by the average number of applications created by each developer to see how much they earn in this area.

* The average income of each application: Google 1125 dollars, Apple 4000 U.S. dollars, Microsoft 625 U.S. dollars

* Average developer's revenue: Google 6000 USD, Apple 21276 USD, Microsoft 2222 USD

From this we can see that each application seems to bring a good income, a hard working iOS developer can buy a new car, and Android and Windows developers can only go to the second-hand market to buy a car. With an average of 4000 dollars in revenue for each iOS app, Apple is in the lead, but how many developers can actually live with application development. The direct revenue from application sales is not even enough to pay for development teams, but other revenue channels, such as advertising, help developers increase revenue.

Of course, this is just average value, and many people want to find the next hot app that will bring above-average income. But every application that is above average means that the average level of other applications declines.

Where are the opportunities

But there is still hope ahead. Apple has built a mature market for developers, and Google and Microsoft also have opportunities to develop. For Google, it should focus on helping developers generate revenue and raise income levels to keep pace with Apple. Even if Google reaches half of Apple in terms of revenue per download, it means developers can keep up with Apple in total revenue. For Microsoft, it should be committed to increasing the number of users. If Microsoft is able to maintain an average income level for each application and increase the user base, Microsoft may be in the middle of a platform battle.

However, in any case, efforts should be made to improve the income-generating capacity of free applications, which may be the next development opportunity for developers, and can offer a broader perspective than existing opportunities.

Every application developer wants to create the next big hit, but in any market, it's doomed to have most people left behind and paid no return. One day mobile apps will end up in the same way as other industries in the past, whether it was the gold rush of the Yukon River in the past, the Web site of the 90 's, or today's application development, where most of the revenue goes to people who drive development rather than engage in development. Li Wei Strauss (Levi Strauss) accumulated wealth by selling picks and shovels to the prospectors; Adobe, Amazon and Google accumulate wealth by providing support for Internet developers; with the development of the mobile revolution, some new members will provide tools for application development, and they may be the real big winners.