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March 1, 2012 9 Comments

Android Apps more Expensive than their iOS Counterparts

According to a report by Canalys, Android apps, when compared to the apps found in the iTunes App Store, are more on the expensive side. The survey was done by comparing the top 100 paid apps from both the marketplaces, and it was found that Android apps cost, on average, 2.5 times more than their iOS counterparts.

The survey was conducted by downloading the top 100 paid apps from the US version of Android Marketplace as well as from the iTunes App Store. In the Android Marketplace, the cost of the apps purchased amounted to a whopping $374.37 averaging at $3.74 per app. The iTunes App Store on the other hand averaged at $1.47 per app costing a total of $147.00 for the 100 apps purchased. Furthermore, 82 of the 100 paid apps in the iTunes App Store are priced at $0.99, while just 22 apps in the Android market can boast of that price tag. Even though anything pertinent to Apple is usually perceived to be on the costlier side, this survey paints a completely different picture as far as app pricing is concerned.

So, why this huge disparity between the two app stores? Isn’t Android the more economical of the two choices? The answer lies in the fact that the iOS App store is much more mature than the rising Android Marketplace. Firstly, thanks to the plethora of quality apps it provides, the Apple app store is much more competitive than any other app stores. Secondly, there are more people willing to pay for apps than there are in the Android Marketplace. This has resulted in more people buying apps from Apple thus providing a more profitable environment for the developers. Furthermore, the mature in-app purchasing system in iOS gives developers more ways to make money from their customers, giving it an edge over Android. That is one of the main reasons why developers often sell their apps at a discounted price in the iOS app stores and not in the Android marketplace. For example, Monopoly is priced at $0.99 in Apple’s app store and $4.99 in the Android Marketplace.

Though the issue is not as big as the patent blitzkrieg Apple and Microsoft have launched on Google, it’s still another entry in Android’s long list of caveats. If, for example, there’s a customer who’s investing in a phone just for apps, he or she would obviously go for Apple, because discarding the initial cost, the cost of apps is more than half of what it is with Android. That said, not many customers care about the price of the apps, and also, there are barely a few people who know about this disparity. So, in short, it isn’t an issue Google should be worrying about right now. Fragmentation and patent trolling are the two main problems Android should currently focus on. Once it gets an userbase that is much higher than Apple, the app prices will come down automatically.

So, what do you think? Will this price disparity hamper Android’s progress or will it be just a minor hiccup in Google’s road to market domination? Feel free to leave your responses in the comments section below.

Image Credits : Saad Irfan via Flickr

Filed Under: Android, Editorial, News Tagged: , ,
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  • Charlie Whitman

    Wrong conclusion.  This survey does not tell us a thing about how apps in each marketplace compare with counterparts in the other marketplace.  Since it’s limited to paid apps and does not compare them on the basis of the same app being available it doesn’t really tell us much of anything at all.  It just opens the way for a lot of speculation.

    Here’s some speculation: Most of the top 100 apps that people are paying a bit for in the Apple Appstore are not the same top 100 apps that people are paying a bit for in the Google Market.  Perhaps the apps that people are paying for in the Appstore have free equivalents in the Google market.

    It would be more informative to tell us where paid apps rank relative to the overall market including free apps.  I imagine the top 100 apps in each of the respective marketplaces are all free, so you’d have to go further down the list to find any meaningful comparison of prices in the marketplaces.  One thing you can be fairly certain of is that this comparison is not meaningful.

    • http://techlaze.com Tech Laze

      One can say that the comparison is rather vague but still, it does throw some light on the fact that the Android Marketplace is not as competitive as its iOS counterpart. You’ll find more developers giving discounts on iOS than on Android which is the reason why an app like Monopoly costs $0.99 in Apple app store and $4.99 in the Android marketplace. I’m sure there are a few more examples like that. 

      • Rick

        That is a false economic assumption. By the same logic the XBox 360 is not as competitive as the Wii, and VHS tapes are more competitive than Blu-Ray.

        The most likely explanation is a simple supply & demand curve and lifecycle.

        The Android version of Monopoly is still early enough in the lifecycle to maintain a high price, whereas the iOS counterpart is in a later lifecycle demanding a slide down the supply & demand curve.

  • Brian Snipes

    I think the real article has more info. Such as:
    “Individual apps tend to be priced very similarly where they do appear in both stores, with the exception of apps that are subject to promotional pricing on iOS.”
    They need to provide sources for their statement of “fewer people willing to purchase apps on Android than on iOS today”. I myself have probably purchased 20-30 apps on the Android Market.

    • http://techlaze.com Tech Laze

      The fact that fewer people purchase apps on Android than on iOS seems to be somewhat true. Android has gained a lot of userbase by selling low-end phones wherein there are many people who cannot afford to spend a lot of bucks on apps.

      The iOS userbase on the other hand comprises mainly the people who have already spent a lot of money in buying their phone, and they don’t mind spending a few dollars more on some apps. Furthermore, the lack of a developed in-app purchasing system on Android also forces some developers to price their apps higher than on iOS.

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  • Sojibby

    The top 100 android apps and the top 100 iOS apps are the same apps?  If they are not this entire article and any conclusions it makes are based on absolutely nothing.

    I’m frankly quite sick of people trying to compare the Android and iOS markets.  It cannot be done, move on and stop wasting your time.

  • http://twitter.com/GT5_ Mårten C

    There is a point.
    But a BIG difference, i found at least 4-5 apps that is free on Android but costs money on iOS.

  • Cerewa

    I like apps, but i prefer apps that you don’t have to pay anything for. There are zillions of those (for iOS and Android). If you want to save money, use free apps, use android, and use a low cost cellphone service provider (like metropcs or cricket)