Research company Canalys has used its App Interrogator tool to investigate downloads and purchases from the leading app stores in more than 50 countries.
It’s found that downloads from the Apple App Store, Google Play, the Windows Phone Store and BlackBerry World in the first quarter of 2013 had increased by 11% from the previous quarter, reaching 13.4 billion downloads. Revenue from paid-for apps, in-app purchases and subscriptions increased quarter-on-quarter by a slightly lower percentage, growing by 9% to a value of $2.2 billion (£1.4 billion).
Apple’s App Store accounted for around 74% of total revenue, while the Google Play store saw approximately 51% of all downloads.
Tim Shepherd, Senior Analyst at Canalys, said “The strength of app ecosystems will increasingly help to determine winners and losers in the smart device industry. Apple’s App Store and Google Play remain the heavyweights in the app store world. In comparison, BlackBerry World and the Windows Phone Store remain distant challengers today, though they still should not be ignored. Each of these four stores represents a different market proposition for developers, and remains the primary outlet to reach users on the platforms they serve. BlackBerry and Microsoft particularly need to continue to proactively work to attract fresh, innovative content and services to their respective catalogs, and fill gaps in their inventories. But they also need to increase device sales around BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8 to increase the addressable market opportunities on offer to developers.”