Tag: Mobile app downloads

Within the highly competitive mobile apps market, it appears that gaming is coming out on top, at the moment.

According to the results of a study that were only just recently released, the revenues being generated from downloads of mobile games in the United States, as well as those brought in from in-game app purchases is expected to reach a growth rate of 16.5 percent, this year, over last year’s figure.

This would bring those revenues up to a projected total of $3.04 billion from U.S. downloads and in-app purchases alone.

The firm behind this projection is eMarketer, which found that while mobile games will lead the way, there will also be a notable revenue generated from ebooks, video, and music, which will be increasing at a rate of 4.4 percent, 13.8 percent, and 5.4 percent, respectively.

The report provided a considerable amount of insight in this market and suggested two primary reasons that mobile game apps are stepping up ahead of other forms of revenue. The first was from subscription services (for example, Spotify), that is slashing into individual media purchases, as well as the increase of “freemium” games (for instance, Clash of Clans, from Supercell), which can be played for free but where in-app upgrades can be purchased.

Purchases made within mobile games – such as virtual coins – are predicted to make up almost 60 percent of revenue growth.

These in app purchases, will make up 60 percent of mobile game revenue growth, and is predicted to bring in $1.82 billion, this year. As a whole, the download revenue for these smartphone and tablet apps is predicted to increase by 10.3 percent in order to come to $9.82 billion by the close of this year, said the research. Of that, games are predicted to make in a rising share of those earnings.

Last year, they comprised 29.3 percent of the earnings, but that should come up to 30.9 percent, this year. Two years ago, mobile games brought in 26.4 percent of the app download revenues. On the other hand, ebook downloads are going to bring in the most amount of money, at $4.25 billion in the United States. Video will earn $850 million and $550 million will be earned by music downloads.

This year still had the largest figures to date, but the year over year increases are beginning to ease.

Over the holiday season, tablets and smartphones proved to be a highly popular gift, yet again, and it should therefore not come as a shock to anyone that the number of mobile app downloads broke another range of records in 2013.

This most recent gift giving season saw an increase of 91 percent in downloaded applications.

That rate was seen on Christmas day when compared to the average daily rate of mobile app downloads that was experienced for the rest of December up until that day. This data was reported in a recent publication by Flurry, a mobile measurements and analytics platform. That company examined the transfer of more than 400,000 applications in order to determine what recipients of new iOS and Android devices were doing with them after they were unwrapped as gifts from under the tree.

The research found that mobile app downloads also increased by 11 percent.

That growth figure was recorded between the number of downloaded applications on Christmas day 2013 when compared to the same day in 2012. As much as the numbers are still increasing and continue to break records, they are also starting to slow in their growth. The reason is believed to be that fewer consumers are receiving their devices for the first time. Though some have just obtained their first devices, many have obtained their second, third, or even fourth ones.

Consumers who already have smartphones and who have now received tablets, or who are receiving replacement devices already know what apps they like and trust. There is less experimenting to try out different things for the first time.

Flurry’s report explained that “New device activations do still spike on Christmas, but that spike is waning compared to years past, and it comes on top of a much larger installed base. That means that when new devices are loaded with apps, the overall impact on app download volume is not as big.”

It also pointed out that the largest increases in device ownership and mobile app downloads are typically in countries where there is a less significant importance placed on Christmas or where it is not celebrated.