AdMob is out with its latest Mobile Metrics Report, this time combining its readily available network data with survey results from over 1,000 users of iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices. Just for your reference, AdMob claims to serve ads for more than 7,000 mobile Web sites and 3,000 applications around the world.
Here are the takeaways from the July report, with some commentary of my own:
- App discovery is mostly done by perusing through the rankings on the App Store and Android Market >> not much of a surprise since it’s a centralized platform for something
- Over 90% of users who browse the application storefronts do so from their mobile devices rather than their computer >> makes sense, because that’s where they end up too, but the percentage is very high regardless
- Android and iPhone users download 9-10 new apps per month, while iPod touch users download 18 on average. Furthermore, 22% of iPod Touch owning survey respondents download more than 20 free apps a month >> I’d expect downloading behavior to be similar for both platforms, but I have no clue why iPod Touch users would be inclined to download double the amount of apps than mobile phone users. (update: commenters suggest the younger demographic of iPod Touch owners likely install more games, boosting the average)
- Over half of Android and iPhone users spend more than 30 minutes per day using apps
- 19% of Android users download at least 1 paid app per month, compared to 50% of iPhone users and 40% of iPod Touch users >> this is the key finding in the report, although it would also be helpful to correlate these statistics with app pricing and actual revenue
- Users who regularly purchase paid apps spend an average of $9 on about 5 paid apps per month
- Dividing the average amount paid per month by the average number of paid apps downloaded yields an average app purchase price of about $1.80 >> this seems rather high
If you’d extrapolate the findings on app spending, which is not without risk considering the relatively small number of users surveyed, and combine them with estimated numbers of users of the devices / platforms, you could conclude that the App Store paid market is currently nearly $200 million per month (or approximately $2.4 billion a year) in size compared to $5 million per month (or $60 million on a yearly basis) for the Android Market.
Both strike me as overstated, particularly the estimated paid market size for Apple’s App Store, so I’d wager we need a bit more deep-delving analysis before reaching such conclusions.
You can download the full report here (PDF).
im guessing the demographics of ipod touch owners would be slightly younger – meaning more game downloads
Exactly what I thought. Gamers.
Dear Fellow Cyber Information Superhighway Users:
I made a Long Distance from my home in Arlington, VA to Chicago, IL. The cost was only 12 cents per minute. I wanted to ask about how to use the calendar function on my new PDA to plan out my days. They told me that I can Download the instructions from the World Wide Web. Wow, what technology. I asked the typist at work if we have the World Wide Web at our company. She said, no, but we have something very advanced called the Intranet. She proceeded to use the Personal Computer to send a CC Mail to someone for advice. He said that he does have access to the Information Super Highway at his home, and that he would go home and Dailup a connection, at which time he would Download the manual for my PDA. This is just incredible. He even says he Surfs the Web all the time.
Sincerely,
/electronically signed/
Prince Momar
PS, would anyone like to become Penpals with me via Telnet or IRC (Internet Chat Relay)?
Admob has done a very good job, by giving detailed metric reports between the two giant apps in the globe.. nice..
It’s very simple. Android provides most of the apps free to download, when compared to Apple. Of course Apple has a vast number of apps than Android, so naturally the iPhone users have more options.
This is all a bit misleading.
The vast proportion of apps on the Android Marketplace are free. And we’re talking about some great functional apps. As such, there’s less need to download paid apps, as well as simply fewer paid apps available.
iPhone users may tend to see their device primarily as a phone. But iPod touch users probably realize the potential of apps more than the iPhone users.
John I think it’s more likely that the ipod touch is used more by younger users or people that use it on the commute.
People with the iphone are most likely older and have less time.
I think itunes plays into this, with the apple app store its just a case of logging in to confirm purchase thats already been setup.
I think google needs to make a itunes like app that each is brandable for the phone makers.
So the report tells us that Android users are more intelligent, but we knew that already. There’s nothing surprising in those stats, imo. I probably would have guessed at less than 10% accessing the stores from a PC. But, surveys only tell us about the “want to answer a survey” demographic so maybe it’s all worthless anyway…
My interpretation is that android users hate admob enabled apps. So, if you write an app, and want it to succeed on android, don’t use admob.
“but I have no clue why iPod Touch users would be inclined to download double the amount of apps than mobile phone users” – a lot of mobile phone users are simply upgrading to the latest “must have” phone – and may not have the same app download inclination as an iPod Touch customer – who buys an Ipod Touch (as opposed to say a nano) precisely so they can download apps and expand the functionality of the device.
agreed. I’m a tech enthusiast and although I want the latest ‘must have’ phone, I’m too broke to pay the contract termination fee every couple of months and/or pay the retail cost of the new version of the ‘must have’ phone every year. I got my iPod b/c I had a good excuse (gift card) and to find out if it was all it and the iPhone are chalked up to be (the iPod is, can’t comment on iPhone). I try to find apps for every day activities.
Here’s my insight into the greater number of iPod App downloads. I have an iPod Touch (and a crappy Verizon phone) so my iPod is my only real mobile device. I download a lot of apps for a few reasons:
1. When I have wifi access, I feel I have to take advantage of the opportunity;
2. I download a lot of apps that are useful and fully functional without wifi since most of the time when I actually am ‘mobile’ myself, I won’t have a connection. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which apps are going to work the same w/o internet access so I end up downloading another app that has a similar purpose and will hopefully work better.;
3. This kind of plays into the last point but since I only have limited connection time, I don’t read reviews before downloading an app (unless it costs $$), I just read the description, view the screen shots and hope for the best.
4. More of a side point but I’ve learned to always download the free version of an app before the paid version, use it for a day or so (maybe less) then get the paid version. As a result I download a ton of the lite versions just to see what they’re like.
Admittedly I do have about 1.5 pages of games but I don’t download a lot of games. I find a well reviewed game and play it for months. Games are usually the more fun and functional apps to use when on the road or w/o wifi.
yea the average iPhone user is acually able to afford it, rather busy and 25+ of age on average. even tho there are enough free Apps (like that one:
http://www.apps...phone-60440/app – a mobile community which lets you locate yourself so friends can see where u are and what you´re up to and vice versa), people are still willing to pay for Apps which are actually useless, merely containing services you´d have in the one device or the other already. again, its an issue of time management – you either have it or u dont. and then u pay.
why does 1.80 seem high if you’re factoring only paid apps? the cheapest are .99 and their are potentially worthwhile ones at 3, 5 and 10.
I would like to add a comment on the ‘%who buy app’.
I don’t know the circumstances on the Apple platform, but for Android you con use only Creditcards (major brands) and GoogleCheckout.
I would have bought an App when the billing would go though my telephone bill or they add directdebit cards (which bank account holders have 99%).
-Cheers.
These “admob says” articles are pointless, besides being commercials for admob. The statistics do not represent the overall population of apps, so their findings are mostly irrelevant.
In fact, at best, they illustrate the weakness in their network, and where the market opportunities are for their competitors.
http://www.link...harma/5/796/428
Stop posting. You are showing your jealousy.
Instead of posting nonsense, why don’t you explain how Admob stats are relevant beyond their own biased sampling? If they can point to a methodology that would hold up to peer review to justify their numbers, I’d be happy. Otherwise, all we have is infomercial bait for all the tech blogs.
BTW, I am not that person. You know, there are quite a few Indians in this world.
I wouldn’t say the statistics are useless, but they are biased, since they are based on a survey of AdMob users who by definition must have downloaded at least one app.
I’ve seen previous numbers (from Nielsen, I think) that indicated that two-thirds of iPhone users don’t download any paid apps at all.If half of those also don’t download free apps, that would give you the 50% figure AdMob comes up with (since to be in their survey you had to at least download a free app).
My interpretation is that android users hate admob enabled apps. So, if you write an app, and want it to succeed on android, don’t use admob.
Sorry… forgot to say great post – can’t wait to read your next one!
lots of iphone owners see there devices as primarily a phone. itouch owners bought the device specifically for the app functionality. so it makes perfect sense.
Both strike me as overstated, particularly the estimated paid market size for Apple’s App Store, so I’d wager we need a bit more deep-delving analysis before reaching such conclusions.
Yes, Admob used Units Sold (45M of iPhone and iPod Touch) as Number of users when calculating the market size though there are many users who upgraded their iPhone or have both iPhone and iPod Touch. This is one of the reason why their estimated market size seems bigger than actual size.
The reason android users buy less apps is because you can’t charge it to your cell phone bill and have to use paypal or google checkout. Make it simple to buy apps, watch the sales boom.