An infographic draws parallels between the battle for supremacy in the app store ecosystem and the popular blockbuster TV epic. Here there are just two players, Android and iOS - after all this time Windows Phone 7 doesn't even signify.
The infographic is from App Annie, whose analytics are used by over 100,000 apps. The breakdown is that App Annie gathers data on on 641,304 iOS apps in 123 regional stores and 353,071 Android apps in 35 regional stores. App Annie is used by top companies including EA, Glu, Nokia, Shazam and Microsoft, but registration and use of its analytics is free.
Despite the emergence of Google Play, iOS revenue stays well ahead
For iOS two of the top three countries by downloads are Asian with Europe lagging, while for Android Google Pay has yet to establish itself as the dominant Android app store in Asia.
For both app stores the US, Japan and UK generate the most revenue:
However, Google Play is currently seeing 88% year-to-date growth in revenue.
While iOS and Google Play revenues at growing at the same rate (14%) in terms of revenue the worldwide share of revenue is 71% iOS to 29% Google Play - which means that for every dollar spent of Google Play, $2.45 is spent on iOS apps.
It is worth seeing this video of realtime simulated water flow. It isn't perfect, but it is very good, and what can you say but "wow" when you watch all that simulated water sloshing about!
What seems like a small spat between Google and Microsoft over a new You Tube app for WP8 is actually a lesson to all of us, and might set a precedent in a much wider context.
