Whoever said that apps are going away anytime soon has probably not seen the latest report from App Annie. According to their numbers, the first quarter of 2018 saw “the strongest quarter the app economy has ever seen”. The combined downloads from the iOS and Google Play Store saw a 10% growth with 27.5 billion while consumer spend also grew to a whooping 22% to $18.4 billion. Meanwhile, Google Play Store also saw record growth in terms of consumer spend.
The 27.5 billion downloads actually only reflects initial installs and not the re-installs or app updates. This seems like a pretty good number especially since some doomsayers were saying that the age of the apps is over. There are currently over 6.2 million apps across the two app stores and an average consumer spends 3 hours a day in apps and accesses around to 40 apps per month. And while Google Play had 19.2 billion downloads this quarter, iOS is narrowing the gap by 10 percentage points. Shopping apps and games were of course the expected huge drivers in terms of downloads.
When it comes to consumer spend, Google Play is narrowing the gap with iOS by 10 percentage points with their 25% growth this quarter. This is now the smallest difference between the two since Q1 of 2016. The US was still the strongest driver, with Japan and the Philippines following in the largest quarter over quarter growth in consumer spend. Music & Audio & Entertainment apps were the categories that had the largest market share growth. This goes to show that people now prefer to sign up for streaming subscription services through the apps.
2017 was already a record year for apps according to the App Annie report and if the first quarter of 2018 is any indication, it’s going to be a good year for developers and distributors.
SOURCE: App Annie
