The document provides a summary of key trends in the mobile app market in 2012. It finds that Google Play showed strong revenue growth over the last 4 months of 2012, while the Apple App Store grew more modestly. However, the Apple App Store still generated significantly higher total daily revenues. Some apps like Draw Something and Line Pop achieved millions of users within days. The proportion of revenue from in-app purchases on the Apple App Store increased from 53% to 69% over 2012. The United States remained the largest market by revenue, followed by Japan, the UK, and Australia.

1. 2012
Year In Review
By Gert Jan Spriensma, Analyst at Distimo
Publication - Year 2012
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2. Publication - Year 2012
me is
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Hello,
A brief introduction
Distimo has a very clear objective: to make the app market transparent.
The company was born out of the frustration of a lack of insights into
the performance of apps and the manual work needed to track important
metrics.
Our goal is to provide the best and most actionable app intelligence for anyone who
wants to compete in the app market. Our data-driven team seeks to help developers,
brands and financial services companies gain actionable, timely and factual
knowledge of what’s happening daily in the global app market.
We offer three core services:
• App Analytics
to track all of your important app data across all major app stores and ad networks.
• Conversion Tracking
to measure your full app sales funnel from discovery and campaigns to app launch.
• Market Data
to analyze the daily download and revenue volumes of any app in the market.
Founded in 2009, Distimo is a privately held company based in The Netherlands.
Follow us on Twitter, read our blog or learn more at www.distimo.com.
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3. Publication - Year 2012
New and noteworthy
A couple of winners emerged, some late entrants showed promise and Microsoft launched a new app store in 2012. This year-end report focuses
on the clear winners in 2012: the Apple App Store and Google Play. Android has been long hailed as the winner in terms of device installs, however
until last year developers complained about Google Play and the lack of monetization on the platform. Apple, on the other hand, redefined the app
store model, and proved to be highly successful in terms of monetization for developers. The large amount of applications (700K) that are available
on both platforms decreased the ease of discovery, and thus made it more difficult for developers to become successful. Still, some new publishers
managed to become successful and did so extremely rapidly, like Draw Something. This report details how the stores compare, who the clear
publisher and application winners of 2012 were, and shows the trends and stats in play to become the success story of 2013.
The major findings are:
Google Play showed tremendous growth during the past four months, with an aggregated growth in daily revenue
of 43% across 20 of the largest countries, while the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad grew by 21% in daily
revenue in the same period.
Even though the growth in revenues in Google Play in the last four months is close to that of the Apple App Store
in 2012, the growth in daily revenues in the Apple App Store was higher than the total daily revenues in Google
Play when comparing absolute daily revenue values.
Draw Something, one of the best known apps of 2012, reached 1M users in 9 days, however we’ve found it is
possible to gain 1M users even faster. Naver, one of the most successful Asian publishers, launched five applications
at the end of November 2012, and all five quickly became the most popular applications in many Asian countries.
We estimated Line Pop, the most popular of the five, generated 1.75M downloads within 72 hours.
Looking at the worldwide download volumes, the app store opportunity is large. On a typical day in November
2012, the revenues in the Apple App Store exceeded $15M USD, while in Google Play the revenues are just below
$3.5M USD in 20 of the largest countries in both app stores.
Seven applications were responsible for 10% of the revenues in November 2012 in the Apple App Store for iPhone,
which is significantly lower number of applications than in January 2012. Moreover, in the Apple App Store for iPad,
six applications were responsible for 10% of the revenues, while in Google Play this figure was four.
The country with the highest tablet download proclivity is Russia, where 46% of all iOS downloads are on the
iPad. Other countries with a high proclivity of iPad downloads are The Netherlands and Finland with 38% and
35%, respectively. Japan is the country with the least tablet download proclivity, as only 7% of all iOS downloads
are iPad apps. The iPad revenues are already higher than the iPhone revenues in some countries when looking at
revenues, e.g. Russia.
The proportion of revenue that derived from in-apps increased from 53% to 69% in 2012. However, in 2012 there
were still some publishers who were very successful with a paid-only strategy. Moreover, 35% of the revenue from
the top 10 publishers was derived from one-off fees in 2012.
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4. Publication - Year 2012
The App Market Still Amplifying in 2012
There were many success stories in 2012 about applications that managed to became very successful in the matter of
a few days and gathered millions of downloads and revenues. On the other hand, there were also reports focusing on
the big proportion of applications that had almost no downloads or revenues at all. However, looking at the worldwide
daily download and revenue volumes, the opportunity is really huge. The revenues in the Apple App Store are $15M
USD on a typical day in November 2012, while in Google Play the daily revenues were just below $3.5M USD. Please
note that we only used revenue data for 20 countries* in the Apple App Store and in Google Play, however, the
countries we did not include in the year end report are also generally the countries that have lower daily revenues.
United States Still Leads in Terms of Revenues
Combined Revenues in The Apple App Store and Google Play, 20 countries
* Australia, Canada, China,
Denmark, Finland, France,
Germany, Israel, Italy,
Japan, Korea, Netherlands,
Norway, Russia, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland,
Taiwan, United Kingdom,
United States Israel United States
The United States is still the largest market by revenue, followed by Japan, the United Kingdom and Australia. Looking at Google Play only, Japan
rivals the United States. And while Japan is the second largest market for iPhone revenues, there are almost no iPad app sales. Another Google
Play success example is South Korea, Samsung’s hometown, which has low revenues from iPhone and iPad apps, but is the third largest country in
terms of revenues in Google Play.
Google Play: Catching Up? Google Play showed tremendous growth in the past four months, with an aggregated
growth of 43% in daily revenues across all 20 countries. The growth in the Apple App
Store for iPhone and iPad was less spectacular in the past four months with 21%
+51% growth in daily revenues, but looking back at January 2012 the Apple App Store grew
an estimated 51% in daily revenues. The iPad daily revenues increased by an estimated
71%, while the iPhone daily revenues increased by an estimated 40%.
+43% Although the growth of Google Play in the past four months is close to that of the Apple
App Store in 2012, it is important to remember the absolute values in the Apple App
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Store were already much higher. The growth in the Apple App Store was higher than
the total daily revenues in Google Play when comparing absolute daily revenue values.
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5. Publication - Year 2012
Not all countries grew at the same pace. In some markets the daily revenues were already high, while in others the
iPhone was not for sale prior to 2012, for example. The table below displays the top five highest growing countries in
terms of daily revenue for the Apple App Store and Google Play in 2012 and the last four months, respectively.
Apple App Store for iPad Apple App Store for iPhone Google Play (Aug - Nov 2012)
Russia (+143%) Japan (+138%) Korea (+94%)
Japan (+112%) China (+118%) Japan (+60%)
Denmark (+111%) Russia (+96%) France (+46%)
Finland (+111%) Taiwan (+74%) United Kingdom (+40%)
China (+110%) Sweden (+64%) Russia (+37%)
As mentioned previously, revenues for iPad apps in Japan are relatively low compared to iPhone revenues. The same
Large goes for downloads, as demand in some countries is relatively low, while in other countries iPad apps are even more
popular than iPhone apps. The country with the highest tablet proclivity is Russia, where 46% of all iOS downloads
Differences are on the iPad. Other iPad savvy countries are The Netherlands and Finland with 38% and 35%, respectively.
Japan is the country with the least tablet proclivity, as only 7% of all iOS downloads are iPad apps. When looking
in Tablet at revenues, the iPad revenues are already higher than the iPhone revenues in some countries. Although this only
depicts the difference between iPhone and iPad downloads, it is a good indicator whether or not the tablet appeals
Download to customers in a particular country. As Android tablet just start to become popular, countries with a high proclivity
for iPad use and downloads could very well be the countries to target if you are a publisher aiming to reach the
Proclivity tablet market.
iPad Downloads As Proportion of the Total iOS Downloads Per Country
Among 46%
38% 35% 35% 34% 31% 31%
Countries
28% 28% 27% 27% 25% 24% 24% 24% 24% 24% 22% 21%
7%
Successful Publishing
Everybody remembers the success stories of applications that gathered millions of users within a couple of days.
Most notably in 2012, Draw Something did it in nine days. At Distimo, we know it is possible to gain one million users
much faster. Naver, one of the most successful Asian publishers, launched five applications at the end of November,
all of which quickly became the most popular applications in many Asian countries. We estimated Line Pop, the
most popular of those five, to have generated 1.75 million downloads within the first three days of its launch. This is
remarkable when you stop to consider that it took AOL nine years, Facebook nine months, and Draw Something nine
days to reach the one million users milestone. Moreover, Line Pop not only successfully attracted many users; it also
generated one million in estimated revenue within the first 12 days.
The Road To 1M Users 9 Years 9 Months 9 Days 3 Days
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6. Publication - Year 2012
The uptake in these types of quick downloads are most common with games, which are the most downloaded and
revenue generating types of applications. However, other kinds of applications can generate a lot of downloads as
well. The graph below displays the popularity of each category as proportion of the whole store volume.
Downloads & Revenues Per Category
Apple App Store And Google Play Aggregated - Categories With Less Than 2% Excluded
33%
8% 7% 5% 4% 4% 4% 4%
Downloads
3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 2% 2% 1%
Revenues
In-Apps Popularity Continues to Grow
Proportion of Revenue from In-app Purchases (Apple App Store)
Pricing is one of the most difficult decisions to make for app developers. We have seen
the average price of apps decline over the past few years, which is most likely due to
69%
increasing competition. Moreover, one of the main trends over the past years was to
53% monetize via in-app purchases instead of an upfront fee. This trend continued in 2012
as the proportion of revenue generated by applications with in-apps increased. In spite
of this trend, some publishers decided differently and achieved a successful outcome.
One of the main success stories of 2012 that monetizes solely via one-off fees is the
application, Minecraft – Pocket Edition. Aside from Minecraft, other publishers such
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov as Electronic Arts, Apple and Gameloft still receive a large chunk of the revenues from
one-off fees. 35% of the revenue was generated by one-off fees among the top 10
most generating publishers on iOS.
Navigation Applications Are Most Expensive $11.56
$8.04
Average Selling Prices in Each Category $5.74
$6.81
$3.29 $2.78 $3.68 $3.11 $3.11 $3.49 $3.61 Store
$2.85 $2.93
AVG
The average selling price in both the Apple App Store for iPad and iPhone is
quite high for Navigation, Business and Productivity applications. Generally
speaking, customers seem to be willing to pay higher prices in the Apple App
Store for iPad.
$7.25
The average selling price is down from $3.42 by 8% compared to January 2012
in the Apple App Store for iPad. The average price was $1.86 in January 2012
$3.62
in the Apple App Store for iPhone, which increased by 16% over the course of $3.29 $3.37 $3.17
$2.72 $2.57
$2.26
2012. $2.00
$1.62 $1.80 $1.86 $1.70 Store
AVG
Average prices are in general higher in Google Play than in the Apple App Store
for iPhone.
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7. Publication - Year 2012
The Winners Take It All? Downloads
Digital markets where strong rankings effects are
in place like in app stores (due to the focus on
Number of Applications Responsible for 10% rankings), are known to drive a lot of downloads to
of the Free Downloads and Revenues Revenues
a few large players.
Seven applications were responsible for 10% of the
January 2012 November 2012 revenues in November 2012 in the Apple App Store for
iPhone. Compared to January 2012, this is a significantly
30 31 31
lower number of applications, when 11 applications
22 accounted for 10% of the revenues. The pie is shared
20
with a larger number of applications in terms of free
downloads, 10% of free downloads were generated
11
8 7 by 31 apps. Moreover, in the Apple App Store for iPad
6
4 and Google Play these figures are lower, i.e., the
NA concentration of downloads and revenues towards a few
top applications is lower.
Top 10 Most Grossing Cross-Store Publishers
Among 20 of the Largest Countries (Apple App Store & Google Play)
Available Total Apps (iPad /
App publisher In iPhone / Play) Popular app example
Electronic Arts Both 126/266/62 Tetris
Zynga Both 31/44/20 Words With Friends
Gameloft Both 105/198/65 UNO
Apple Apple 6/7/0 iMovie
GREE, Inc. Both 11/96/122 Monster Quest
Playtika LTD Both 4/3/1 Slotomania
TeamLava Both 26/26/22 Bubble Mania
Rovio Entertainment Ltd Both 14/17/13 Bad Piggies
Backflip Studios Both 31/36/10 DragonVale
Supercell Apple 2/2/0 Clash of Clans
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8. Publication - Year 2012
Our 2012 year-end publication showcases a couple of success stories, but many other
publishers and applications that were also very successful over the past year were not
discussed. Among the top 10 highest grossing cross-store publishers on the previous
page, nine of the publishers are gaming companies. Only Apple is in the top 10 while only
publishing in one app store. Another single app store publishing publisher in this list is
Supercell. Supercell is a relatively new gaming company that has only published two games
to date: Clash of Clans and Hayday, which are specifically aimed at the tablet market. Their
two applications have dominated the top grossing lists for quite some time, and Supercell
is among the top 10 highest grossing cross-store publishers in 2012. In contrast, Electronic
Arts is available in both app stores with many applications.
For each specific store on the next two pages the top publishers and top applications by
downloads is given.
If you need more specific information about how popular certain applications and
publishers are, we have paid reports available that contain the top 300 most popular
applications and publishers per region including their full downloads and revenues in
2012.
Recap
We dove into the current state of the Apple App Store and Google Play in our 2012 Year in Review report, and
looked at how both stores developed over the past year. We also highlighted the success stories of a couple of new
publishers that became incredibly successful in 2012 including, Naver, Supercell and Minecraft. Naver, the publisher
of the messaging app Line amongst others, launched one application – Line Pop – that was estimated to have
generated one million downloads in just one day.
Google Play is just starting to rival the Apple App Store in a few countries on a worldwide scale, even though it is
still losing in terms of daily revenues. Although Google Play shows promise and had much higher growth figures than
the Apple App Store, the total daily revenue in Google Play was still lower than the absolute growth in the Apple App
Store.
Lastly, this publication details the 2012 winners, with a cross-store publisher list that includes known names like
Apple, Electronic Arts and Rovio, but also contains relatively new publishers like Supercell. A top 10 publisher and top
10 applications list for both the Apple App Store and Google Play is available.
Now Available (from €4,899):
the full year report on 2012
Trend analyses with download & revenue estimations used in this publication.
Top Apps & Pubs with download & revenue estimations covering full year 2012. Learn More
Basically, all the intel you need to compete in the app store market delivered in
one comprehensive excel report.
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9. Publication - Year 2012
Top 10 Publishers
By Downloads In Apple App Store In 2012
Total apps Avg. price
App publisher (iPad / iPhone) paid apps Popular app example
Apple 6/7 $7.43 GarageBand
Gameloft 105/198 $5.32 Modern Combat 4
Google, Inc. 12/23 - YouTube
Disney 144/131 $3.18 Cars 2
Electronic Arts 126/266 $3.21 The Simpsons
Out Fit 7 Ltd. 31/33 $1.75 Talking Tom Cat
Rovio Entertainment Ltd 14/17 $2.10 Angry Birds: Star Wars
Tencent Technology 21/64 - WeChat
Chillingo Ltd 212/347 $1.84 Parking Mania
Zynga 31/44 $2.75 Respawnables
Top 10 Applications
By Downloads In Apple App Store In 2012
Instagram 1 Draw Something Free 6
Temple Run 2 iTunes U 7
Find My iPhone 3 YouTube 8
Facebook 4 Podcasts 9
iBooks 5 Twitter 10
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10. Publication - Year 2012
Top 10 Publishers
By Downloads* In Google Play In 2012
Total Avg. price
App publisher apps paid apps Popular app example
Google, Inc. 60 - Google Translate
Facebook 2 - Facebook Messenger
Rovio Mobile Ltd. 13 $2.29 Angry Birds Star Wars
Go Dev Team 135 - GO SMS Pro
Adobe Systems 31 $10.00 Adobe Reader
Kakoa 4 - KakaoStory
YouTube 1 - YouTube
Runner Games 12 - Basketball Shoot
NHN Corporation 119 $1.28 네이버 - Naver
Skype 4 - Skype
Top 10 Applications
By Downloads* In Google Play In 2012
Street View 1 YouTube 6
Facebook 2 Adobe Flash Player 7
Voice Search 3 Skype 8
Maps 4 Whatsapp Messenger 9
Gmail 5 KakoaTalk 10
* Downloads include pre-installs
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11. Publication - Year 2012
Visit our webinar on the publication
2012 Year In Review
on thursday the 3rd of January
@ 05.00PM CET (08.00AM PST)
Register here!
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12. Publication - Year 2012
Track daily
downloads and
revenues of
any app with
Distimo AppIQ
Distimo AppIQ allows users to:
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market share and compare download figures versus a competitor’s in one chart.
The chart shows the daily downloads and can also be aggregated per week or month.
Events such as price changes, featured listings and version updates are also included,
and allow the user to analyze the influence of each event on downloads.
• Analyze competing app revenues including those from in-app purchases:
View daily revenues from competing apps side-by-side with the their own app and
get extensive insight into the revenue generation of different business models,
revenue per country, and platform.
• Identify the most popular and upcoming new apps: The Leaderboard provides the
daily rankings of all applications, and can be viewed by app store, country, category,
device, and free/paid/gross. All of the major app stores are supported, and for iOS
and Android, the daily volumes per individual app are also provided. AppIQ users
see the daily downloads and revenue from in-app purchases and one-off fees.
Developers can also use the Leaderboard to see how many downloads are needed to
achieve a certain ranking on any given day.
Learn more about AppIQ at www.distimo.com/app-analytics/appiq.
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13. Publication - Year 2012
Contact us
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or call +31 30 82 00 567.
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Disclaimer
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