2018 has been the best year ever for apps — in terms of downloads and spend — on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, according to a new report by AppAnnie.
The app analytics and data firm revealed that both Apple’s iOS app and Google’s Android app downloads grew by a combined 10% year-over-year. More 27.5-billion apps have been downloaded between the two stores in the first three months of 2018 alone.
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Google Play continues to lead Apple’s App store in this metric, with more than 19.2-billion apps grabbed during this period. Apple sees 135% fewer downloads, with just 8.2-billion apps snagged by users from the App Store.
Graph: AppAnnie
AppAnnie suggests that the gap, although remaining notably large, closed by 10% over the previous quarter, thanks to growth experienced in the US, Russia and Turkey. Google Play, on the other hand, also saw a marked spike in growth in India, Indonesia and Brazil.
Even with its download deficit, Apple does lead Google when it comes to app spend.
Overall, consumers are spending 22% more on apps across both stores than 2017. This pushed Q1 2018’s total quarterly spend to US$18.4-billion.
Graph: AppAnnie
However, the Apple App Store sees 85% more cash dropped on downloads than Google Play, although the latter has reduced that spend gap by 10% this quarter.
Google Play’s spend was also buoyed by the music, audio and entertainment bracket, with AppAnnie postulating that subscription apps are seemingly on trend. Apple’s iOS ecosystem meanwhile saw a boom in health and fitness app spend, suggesting that iPhone users actually remain true to their New Year’s resolutions.
“The US, United Kingdom and Germany experienced the largest market share growth in iOS consumer spend, both year over year and quarter over quarter,” the firm added.
Feature image: William Hook via Unsplash
