Android apps revenue to top Apple for first time this year
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App Annie, which focuses on data related to the mobile-app ecosystem, projects that users of Alphabet’s Android operating system will spend $41 billion in total on apps and subscriptions in 2017, topping $40 billion for Apple.
The company’s market forecast report said that Apple’s App Store racked up $34 billion in sales in 2016, while Android apps collected $27 billion.
Apple will still have the most dominant single app store, however. While Alphabet’s Google has its own Google Play online destination for apps, there are several third-party offerings for devices that run on the Android operating system.
App Annie projects that revenues for Google Play and third-party Android offerings will be roughly similar, with $21 billion in Google Play revenues and $20 billion for other offerings.
Danielle Levitas, senior vice president of research for App Annie, pointed out that Android should be expected to outpace Apple, since Android devices outnumber iOS devices by about a 5-to-1 ratio worldwide. ■