Play Store Outstrips App Store

It was July 2008 when Steve Jobs unveiled App Store with hosting of only 500 apps. But after having a roller coaster ride, App Store rapidly outnumbered its rivals with whooping 1.5 billion downloads across more than 65K apps within a year.

It looked like Jobs’ prediction: It is going to be very hard for others to catch up- is going to become true.

What is a reason behind App Store’s success?

Quality control is the first and foremost reason for App Store’s success in terms of having superior quality apps than that in other app stores. Apple offers an unparallel combination of iPhone software and operating system for optimal performance of apps. In addition, niche market and affluent iPhone users attracted developers, and Apple motivated them by taking just 30 percent of the sales.

Is it the case even today?

The answer is-NO. Apple finally found a new challenger, a real rival in the form of Android store. Backed by search engine giant Google, Android Play Store has overtaken App Store in number of apps. Today, Play Store has more than 1.4 million apps while App Store hosts more than 1.2 million apps. In brief, Play Store clearly outperforms App Store in terms of number of apps.

Although, in the third quarter of the year 2014, Apple earned around 60 percent more revenue than that of Play Store, Play Store’s worldwide downloads were around 60 percent higher than that of App Store. Higher revenue is because of rich iPhone owners’ buying of in-app purchases as well as paid apps.

Why does it happen?

The answer to this question lays in different policies of both tech giants. On one hand, Google is more liberal in accepting apps while, on the other hand, Apple has an austere approach. The rejection rate of apps is higher in App Store than the same in Play Store. In addition, at times, Apple tends to remove any app without giving a satisfactory reason. Therefore, even if developers earn more bucks from App Store than that from Play Store, they tend to opt for Play Store. Data from AppFigures suggest that Google Play has now overtaken App Store in both numbers of apps and the number of developers.

Apple fanboys repetitively shout about the Android app’s quality, but the fact is Apple has no longer command over the app world. And to address quality, Google has come up with a newer version of Android platform.