Distimo finds higher prices, slower growth in the Mac App Store
Distimo has released its latest publication, containing an overview of the various app stores currently running, and the findings about the Mac App Store are quite interesting. While Apple's newest App Store is not quite up to the speed of the mobile platform, it's growing quickly -- the average top 300 Mac application generates roughly half the revenue of a top 300 iPad app. And there are other encouraging stats: the Mac App Store's average price (US$11.21) is by far the highest of the three stores, with the iPhone down at $1.57 and the iPad at $4.19. Two months after launch, the Mac App Store has 2,225 applications, which is fewer than the iPad's 8,099 applications at the same point in its cycle, but don't forget that the iPad already had the iPhone app market pushing it on right away at launch.
Other interesting stats: the Mac App Store consists of 29 percent games, and in the most popular applications, 39 percent are games, which flies in the face of conventional wisdom that says there's no market for games on the Mac. Only 12 percent of the apps on the Mac App Store are free -- less than any other Apple platform.
Finally, and perhaps most interesting, 17 percent of the developers of the top 300 apps on Apple platforms do publish their apps in more than one app store, either in Mac and iOS or on another platform. That means Apple's top developers are reaching out to other platforms -- but only 17 percent of them. For the other side, more than 80 percent of Apple's top developers, the Apple platform is the only one they're releasing their apps on. You can download the whole report over on Distimo's site.
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Distimo has released its latest publication, containing an overview of the various app stores currently running, and the findings...
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Comparing Mac app store software with the iOS apps isn't as interesting as comparing Mac app store software with non-app store software. In particular, what effect has the app store had on application pricing?
March 22 2011 at 2:47 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOther reasons for the slow start for the Mac app store:
a) It's not the only way you can get apps for the Mac. Macs come pre-jailbroken, so it's easy to bypass the Mac app store
b) When the iOS app store opened, there was huge pent up demand, since apps weren't available at all prior to the opening. With the Mac, folks already have lots of apps, so there's no great rush this time around.
Personally, I don't find there to be that much new about the Mac App Store, and why slow growth isn't really a problem here.
Most apps (so far) haven't needed the additional exposure. Free apps are still free, and this is the only area where I'm a bit surprised that we haven't seen more apps. On the other hand, a lack of free apps could possibly be explained by the GPL (licensing) problem VLC has with the iOS app store, as the Mac App Store policies are pretty similar. Regardless of how you see them, there's been conflicts with open source apps which some developers might see as a problem.
Others such as large developers don't comply with agreements and I think we'll have to wait for a bit more to see how smaller developers respond to the price differences and exposure. For now 30% is a lot, but also keep in mind that if people sell apps in the App Store and online, it's not very good to charge 2 different prices AND keep in mind that there is only 1 dot release (10.6.6) that supports App Store apps. While it's been out for a while most consumers don't upgrade for a while so I think by summer we'll start to see other trends.
For me the app store is a bit of a game changer, especially after setting up my new MacBook. Installing the few app store apps I have was a matter of entering one set of credentials and checking them off a list. All of my other apps involved downloading or finding the disc to install, then entering a different serial number (or other similar item) into each. There are a few that took me a while to track down, even though I'm careful about keeping all of that (mostly this was the case with upgrades, where I had multiple serials to choose from).
I'm a tech savy person, more or less. I've built PCs and compiled Linux installs, but I'm focusing on other things now. The speed and simplicity of the app store is amazing, and I can see it being even better for people who are not tech savy at all. The classic "my mother" example is apt here. If I can get her set up on a Mac with an app store account, installing or reinstalling software will be a snap.
I personally think that this is how the majority of consumer computing will be in the near future. There will always be other options for power users, but there's no reason it can't be this simple for most people (most of us don't build or work on our own cars, for example, but some do and that works just fine).
This makes no sense to me. Why are they comparing iOS apps to Mac OS X apps? They are completely different. One is meant to be scaled down and optimized for mobility. The other is meant to be a full-fledged, full featured "application." They are meant for different machines and different uses. Not to mention they run on 2 different platforms. Compare iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch app sales not MAC OS X sales. What's with the insistance on comparing them? It's like comparing oven range sales to cigarette lighter sales. Two different things. Make it stop.
March 21 2011 at 7:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThey're both Apple-run app stores, that's the reason for the comparisson. And it's more like comparing car and motorcycle sales, since they do roughly the same things, but in different ways.
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