App Store Sales For Android To Overtake Apple's iOS, Research Firm Says (sfgate.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: For years, Apple's App Store, the place where people download apps for games and social networking services on their iPhones, has generated far more revenue worldwide than its Android competitors. This year, things are changing: The App Store will fall second to the amount of revenue generated by Android app distributors, predicts analytics firm App Annie. In 2017, the App Store will generate $40 billion in revenue, while Android app stores run by Google and other parties will generate $41 billion, App Annie said. That gap is expected to widen in 2021, with Android app stores generating $78 billion in revenue and Apple's App Store at $60 billion in revenue, according to App Annie's report released on Wednesday. The surge in revenue for Android comes from a growing number of consumers in China who are buying Android phones and are willing to pay for apps. In 2021, App Annie expects there to be eight Android smartphone users to every single iPhone user in China.

Comments

Re:Could jailbreaking being dead be a major factor

[tlhIngan]

My next phone will be android since they can still be rooted. iphones are becoming irrelevant to me. My 5s is still jailbroken with ios 8.3, and I have no desire to muck about with the Yalu/mach_portal mess. No thanks. A lot of people like the iphone, myself included. But I can't do what I want to with it anymore. I wonder how many people feel the same way I do? I lot, I would think.

Not likely - in fact, it's likely to go the other way around. It turns out a MAJOR reason to jailbreak was to pirate apps, and well, Android still lets you do it (which is why Android malware is generally quite virulent - people will give up their entire phone's data to save 99 cents).

The real interesting fact is that after all these years of Android outselling iOS by 4:1 or more, the app store revenue will finally be equal. Either Android users pirate a lot (which they do - the piracy rate is comparable to that of the PC - around 90%), or they don't buy apps. Google can activate a billion devices in a year and despite all those phones, developers still don't make as much money.