DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Competition and Disparity Between Mobile Apps Continue to Grow

With more than 4 million apps downloaded between the Apple and Google app stores, the app market is maturing beyond messaging, social media and entertainment. But as competition and app disparity grows, what will be the differentiating factor of success?

Dickey Singh user avatar by
Dickey Singh
·
Aug. 19, 16 · Analysis
Like (3)
Save
Tweet
Share
5.34K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

The Apple and Google app stores now have more than 4 million apps for download.  The app market is maturing and we are using apps beyond messaging, social media and entertainment. We use apps to order a ride, turn on the house alarm, order lunch for the team, and stay connected over slack.

Comparing Mary Meeker’s 2016 numbers to previous year’s data from Statistica, we know people are

  • installing more apps (37 vs. 27 apps),
  • are spending more time in apps (4-5 vs. 2.8 hours) and
  • using more apps on a daily basis (12 vs. 4-6 apps) this year versus last year.

Advances in deep learning, artificial intelligence and conversational user interfaces will continue to making our mobile devices much more accessible and usable than ever before.

The App Competition Is Growing

The second calendar quarter (April-June 2016) was a record quarter with 237,376 app submissions on the Apple app store which continued with almost 2500 app submissions per day in July 2016 and later confirmed by Tim Cook in his tweet:

Screen Shot 2016-08-16 at 10.48.31 PM.png

App submissions have grown from 3,280 in 2008 Q3 to 237,376 in the most recent quarter (2016 Q2).  The slowdown in app submission rate in early 2015 has been wiped by the significant growth in late 2015 and 2016.

Screen Shot 2016-08-16 at 10.21.06 PM


The Disparity Between Apps Is Growing

On August 3, 2016, Tim Cook tweeted App publishers have earned over $50 billion on the Apple store.

Screen Shot 2016-08-16 at 10.48.15 PM

On August 16, Pokémon Go made $1.9 million and Game of War made $1.5 million.  However, over half of the app publishers made less than $16 that day.

Top 20 game earnings, per Think Gaming, for August 16:
Screen Shot 2016-08-16 at 4.08.47 PM.png

Per the Developer Economics Q3 2015, 51% of mobile developers are below the app poverty line and earn less than $500 per month

Here is a detailed graphical representation of the findings.

  • The 51% app publishers that make less than $500 a month, includes 19% who have zero monetization.
  • 72% of app publishers make less than $5000 a month.
  • 13% of app publishers make over $50,000 per month, which includes 4% app developers that make over $500,000 per month.

Screen Shot 2016-08-16 at 3.47.14 PM.png

The explosive growth, fierce competition and the huge disparity continue and are expected to continue.  Apps with data and intelligence will continue winning while the majority struggles.

mobile app

Published at DZone with permission of Dickey Singh, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • Differences Between Site Reliability Engineer vs. Software Engineer vs. Cloud Engineer vs. DevOps Engineer
  • OpenID Connect Flows
  • How Do the Docker Client and Docker Servers Work?
  • Understanding gRPC Concepts, Use Cases, and Best Practices

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends: