Top Apple’s App Store developers are earning 64% more than Google Play’s

Randy Nelson for Sensor Tower:

The top 100 earning app publishers across Apple’s App Store and Google Play generated a combined average of $130.4 million in consumer spending globally during the first quarter of 2019, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates reveal. The App Store’s top publishers saw average gross income of $83.8 million, which was 64 percent more than the average of $51 million spent across Google Play’s 100 highest-earning app makers.
Global Spending Per Top 100 App Publisher
We analyzed quarterly consumer spending in apps from the top 100 publishers on the App Store and Google Play between Q1 2014 and 2019. Our analysis revealed a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 31 percent over this period, with the App Store and Google Play’s individual CAGR at a closely matched 31.3 and 31.2 percent, respectively.

The Disparity Grows Wider for Non-Gaming Revenue
Looking specifically at the 100 highest-earning publishers of non-gaming apps, we found that the difference in average consumer spending between the App Store and Google Play is far greater. Consumers spent an average of $23.3 million in apps from the App Store’s top non-gaming publishers last quarter, compared to $7 million on Google Play. This represented a 232 percent difference, with the top non-gaming publishers on Apple’s platform earning 3.3 times as much as their Google Play counterparts on average. The combined top 100 earning non-gaming publishers across both stores grossed an average of $29 million during Q1.

As this analysis further confirms, Apple’s App Store remains the leading mobile storefront in terms of consumer spending from a variety of perspectives. Last year, consumers spent 88 percent more on the App Store than on Google Play, according to Sensor Tower’s overview of 2018 app spending.

MacDailyNews Take: Android is the backwater platform (Hee Haw!) that we long ago predicted it would be:
Android is pushed to users who are, in general:
a) confused about why they should be choosing an iPhone over an inferior knockoff and therefore might be less prone to understand/explore their devices’ capabilities or trust their devices with credit card info for shopping; and/or
b) enticed with “Buy One Get One Free,” “Buy One, Get Two or More Free,” or similar ($100 Gift Cards with Purchase) offers.
Neither type of customer is the cream of the crop when it comes to successful engagement or coveted demographics; closer to the bottom of the barrel than the top, in fact. Android can be widespread and still demographically inferior precisely because of the way in which and to whom Android devices are marketed. Unending BOGO promos attract a seemingly unending stream of cheapskate freetards just as inane, pointless TV commercials about robots or blasting holes in concrete walls attract meatheads and dullards, not exactly the best demographics unless you’re peddling muscle building powders or grease monkey overalls.
Google made a crucial mistake: They gave away Android to “partners” who pushed and continue to push the product into the hands of the exact opposite type of user that Google needs for Android to truly thrive. Hence, Android is a backwater of second-rate, or worse, app versions that are only downloaded when free or ad-supported – but the Android user is notoriously cheap, so the ads don’t sell for much because they don’t work very well. You’d have guessed that Google would have understood this, but you’d have guessed wrong.
Google built a platform that depends heavily on advertising support, but sold it to the very type of customer who’s the least likely to patronize ads.
iOS users are the ones who buy apps, so developers focus on iOS users. iOS users buy products, so accessory makers focus on iOS users. iOS users have money and the proven will to spend it, so vehicle makers focus on iOS users. Etcetera. Android can have the Hee Haw demographic. Apple doesn’t want it or need it; it’s far more trouble than it’s worth. – MacDailyNews, November 26, 2012

“All men are created equal.”
Well, not when it comes to users of smartphones and tablets…
The bottom line: Those who settle for Android devices are not equal to iOS users. The fact is that iOS users are worth significantly more than Android settlers to developers, advertisers, third-party accessory makers (speakers, cases, chargers, cables, etc.), vehicle makers, musicians, TV show producers, movie producers, book authors, carriers, retailers, podcasters… The list goes on and on.
The quality of the customer matters. A lot.
Facile “analyses” that look only at market (unit) share, equating one Android settler to one iOS user, make a fatal error by incorrectly equating users of each platform one-to-one.
When it comes to mobile operating systems, all users are simply not equal. – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, November 15, 2014
See also: What we mean by ‘Hee Haw demographic’