Android market Insights Vol.4

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Android Market MonitorJuly 2011

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Android Market Insights

July’s HeadlinesAndroid device shipments currently reach close to 50% of the smartphone OS market share. Altogether, 51.7 million new Android devices were added to the stores user base. Another successful quarter and Android’s reach will top that of Apple.




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Key Insights in July are:• Android holds 48% of smartphone shipments in Q2 2011.• Android Market’s potential user base comprises 28% of total smartphone

app users (Apple holds 37% of total smartphone apps reach).• Number of potential Android app users will catch up with Apple’s app

user base by the end of 2011.• Android is preloaded onto more than 320 different handheld devices that

can be clustered into 4-6 groups based on their technical characteristics.• As of the end of June the Android Market contained 256,445 apps• Over the last few months average weekly new adds were 4,400: number

of apps in store grows around 2% per week.• In July the net new adds featured merely 24% paid apps, compared to

42% three months ago.• Average selling price in Android store keeps slowly decreasing as well,

and at the end of July 2011 equals $3.07.


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By the end of 2011 Android Market will have as large user base as Apple App Store • For most developers one of the key criteria in selection of a platform is the potential

reach of an application. Previously Apple was the unquestionable leader, with the largest app store user base.

• Over the past few quarters we have seen Android take over the smartphone market with record-breaking device shipments. In Q2 2011 it had already gained 48% of total smartphone shipments. However, Apple does not lag far behind, and it boasts an extraordinarily successful quarter, becoming the largest device manufacturer.

• Even though Android exceeded Apple in terms of smartphones shipped, Apple remains a leader due to significant success of other handheld devices, such as iPad and iPod Touch. To date Apple has shipped over 240 million smart devices (iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads) leaving Android behind with 170 million cumulative device shipments. Given the device replacement cycles and other relevant factors, actual potential user bases are lower but Apple still wins over Android.

• However, Android is rapidly catching up the former largest smartphone operating system, in terms of potential app store‘s reach. The narrowing gap is even more obvious if we look into the share of each platform of the total smartphone application user base.


Android is closing the reach gap

2008 Q4 2009 Q4 2010 Q4 2011 Q2

74%

59%

39% 37%

0% 2%

18%

28%

iOS share Android share

Sources: research2guidance


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How fragmented is Android‘s user base?

• Many would argue here that Android’s user base is not comparable to Apple’s, due to significant fragmentation. While Apple has launched only seven different handheld devices so far (iPod Touch, two iPads and several generations of iPhone), Android today is preloaded on to at least 320 different smartphone models with possible customizations in OS. Do developers really have to customize their app for each of those 320 devices to reach significant majority of users?

• Based on official Android’s statistics 80% of active Android devices run Android 2.2 or Android 2.3 operating system versions. Three quarters (75%) of all devices have normal screen size with high density, with another 17% having normal screen size with medium density. Based on dominant technical characteristics among active Android devices, developers need to optimize applications for merely 4-6 different device types to guarantee good app experience to 80-95% of all Android users.


Dominant technical characteristics

56%

24%

15%

5%

Platform version dominance

Android 2.2Android 2.3Android 2.1Other

75%

17%

3%3%

Screen sizes and resolution

Normal/hdpiNormal/mdpiSmall/hdpiLarge/mdpi

Source: based on Android Open Source Project resources and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 2.5 Attribution License.


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Android Market key metrics overview: developers embrace free apps

• The Android Market remains ahead of Apple’s App Store in terms of new additions of content. As of the end of July it comprises 256,445 apps, 35% of which are paid. In July 2011 Android Market added 19,246 new apps, growing 2% per week.




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App number dynamics in July 2011

01/07 08/07 15/07 22/07 29/070

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

237,199 242,247 247,261 251,261 256,445

Free Paid

+1,238

+2,947+3,739+3,810

+1,125+1,275 +917

+4,194

Sources: research2guidance, AndroidPIT


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Over the last few months the level of new adds remained stable and averaged 4,400 new apps added to the store per week. However, recently developers have started to choose a free app model more often than previously. If in April the share of new paid apps added was around 40%, in July it dropped to as low as 24%.




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Number of apps and share of paid/free

01/04

08/04

15/04

22/04

29/04

06/05

13/05

20/05

27/05

03/06

10/06

17/06

24/06

01/07

08/07

15/07

22/07

29/07

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

Free Paid Share of paidSources: research2guidance, AndroidPIT


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Number of apps and share of paid/free

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

Free Paid Share of paidSources: research2guidance, AndroidPIT


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Share of paid apps per category

Pers

onal

izatio

n

Book

s & R

efer

ence

Educ

ation

Heal

th &

Fitn

ess

Trav

el &

Loca

lM

edica

lLif

esty

leSp

orts

Prod

uctiv

ityCo

mics

Tool

sM

edia

& V

ideo

Ente

rtain

men

tCo

mm

unica

tion

Wea

ther

Tran

spor

tatio

nGa

mes

Finan

cePh

otog

raph

yM

usic

& Aud

ioSh

oppi

ngSo

cial

Busin

ess

Libra

ries &

Dem

o

News &

Mag

azin

es

80%

55%

44%39% 39% 37% 36%

33% 32% 31%26% 26% 25% 25% 24% 23% 21% 20% 20% 20%

17% 16% 15% 14% 12%

Sources: research2guidance, AndroidPIT


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Disclaimer

• Research2guidance invites any reader and holder of this report to use, copy, cite, spread, and build upon this work non-commercially, as long as you credit research2guidance and AndroidPIT.

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Android market Insights Vol.4