How Big Is the Apple iPhone App Economy? The Answer Might Surprise You

gigaom.com

25 points·barredo··9 comments

It's instructive to note this analysis is based on a self-selected sample of 1000 iphone, ipod touch and android users.

I always wonder about the "reports" that smaller companies produce. At Y! the research group (as in customer insights) are proper statisticians and know how to do sampling, and discard outliers, etc.

I'd be much happier if some of these companies published raw anonymised data with their methodology to accompany the report.

Right. The users must've downloaded at least one app to participate in the survey, and it's not unreasonable to assume that people willing to complete such a survey would be at the extreme end of app activity.

From a comment on the page:

>Although I am rather upset with Apple for not approving applications that would allow for visuals with music — rather upset! — this is where the market is at currently.

Is it true? Does somebody know of such an app which has been rejected?

I find this incredibly hard to believe. 1.5 Billion apps downloaded in about the first year, generously 10% of those are paid downloads.

150 Million apps generating 2.5 billion in revenue? When reasonable estimates suggest that about 40-50% of the apps sold go for $1?

Also the average of $10 per month spent on apps by iPhone users... seems on the high side.

My guess is these numbers are for July'09 when 3GS launched and they have extrapolated to an year which is being statistically ignorant.

Wow, that is a lot of money spent on fart programs.

yes, because there is absolutely nothing else you can spend money on in the app store.

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