The Web is full of headlines that claim almost all app store revenue now comes from in-app purchases within free apps. But like much of what appears on the Internet, it is necessary to take a closer look at the numbers, to better understand the story.
Using our December 2013 US survey data, Yankee Group created a visual representation to identify smartphone users in the U.S. who do in-app purchasing. We asked smartphone owners who have downloaded apps to their devices, if these were paid or if they downloaded only free apps. We then identified users that have done in-app purchasing in the last month and how much money they are spending on these.