Smartphone app market saw 35% growth in 2017

The smartphone app market is one of the biggest software markets on the planet, and it keeps growing. According to data by app analytics service Sensor Tower, the global smartphone app market saw a whopping 35% growth in 2017.

The app market saw a total revenue of about US$58.6 billion in 2017, a large bump from 2016's figure of US$43.5 billion. This number, of course, accounts for outright app purchases, in-app purchases, and subscriptions. The two main players in the game, Google and Apple, saw a large disparity in the revenue of their app stores. Apple's App Store grew from a revenue of US$28.6 billion in 2016 to US$38.5 billion in 2017, a 34.7% year-on-year climb. Google's service also saw significant growth, going from US$15 billion in 2016 to US$20.1 billion in 2017. That corresponds to about a 34.2% year-on-year increase, which shows that users of both Android and iOS devices increased their expenditures almost equally across the board.

Apple's store, with US$38.5 billion of revenue in 2017 almost doubles Google's figure of US$20.1 billion. That figure, of course, is largely due to Android's open-source nature that lends itself to a much higher chance of app piracy than its iOS rival. On the flip side, the stricter, larger Apple Sore market also ensures that iOS users get premium apps before Android users, as Android owners are just a tad less likely to fork out cash.

Head over to the link below for the comprehensive report.