A U.S. federal judge ordered sweeping changes to Google Play, the default source for Android applications. Rival Android software marketplaces will get a big boost as a result.
While the iPhone App Store is similar, Apple’s and Google’s situations are different enough that iPhone users shouldn’t expect similar changes anytime soon. Long term? That’s a different story.
The number of Android applications on Google Play is likely to drop after Google updated its Minimum Functionality policy to block apps that “only have limited functionality and content.”
Unlike the experience in Apple’s App Store, Android users must wade knee-deep through useless apps to find anything worthwhile. The new policy should remedy this … assuming Google enforces it.
Starting in September, Microsoft will require its employees in China to use iPhones for work-related activities, effectively banning Android devices from work use, according to a new report. And of course the irony of a new policy stating that Microsoft employees in China must use Apple devices isn’t lost on us.
iPhone users spent almost $25 billion in the App Store during Q1 2024, according to a market research firm. In contrast, Android uses spent only $11 billion on Google Play in the same time period.
This despite the number of downloads from Google Play more than tripling App Store downloads. Clearly, a great many Android users aren’t willing to pay for apps.
Epic Games convinced a federal jury that the Google Play store for Android applications is an illegal monopoly. The decision might have wide repercussions.
Apple won its court battle with the game-developer over the same issue, but Google’s loss could nevertheless eventually affect the iOS App Store.
Third-party iPhone apps scored significantly lower than their Android counterparts, according to an analysis of user reviews of 4,400 top mobile apps.
This does not necessarily mean that Android offers better third-party software, though. iPhone users simply expect more from their apps.
“The data shows iOS users are more critical of mobile apps than Android users are,” said David Kravets, senior content marketing manager for unitQ, the company that did the research, in an interview with Cult of Mac.
And after going through nearly 122 million reviews, unitQ analysts say there’s “lots of room for improvement” in mobile software.
Google on Thursday confirmed that it will give “a small number of participating developers” the ability to implement third-party payment methods in their Android apps as part of a pilot program called User Choice Billing.
Spotify, first to take advantage of the change, will offer Google Play’s billing system as well as its own. The move puts even more pressure on Apple, which has been fighting hard to block third-party payment systems on iOS.
Illinois is the latest U.S. state to file a bill that could force Apple and Google to accept third-party payment systems inside apps.
The “Freedom to Subscribe Directly Act,” supported by Hey app developer Basecamp, wants to prohibit both companies from requiring developers to use the App Store and Google Play to sell software and subscriptions.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney renewed his attack on the App Store, telling a conference in South Korea that “Apple must be stopped.”
Sweeney, who spoke Tuesday at the Global Conference for Mobile Application Ecosystem Fairness, accused Apple of complying with “oppressive foreign laws.” He also called for “a single store that works with all platforms.”
Applications that trick users into paying huge subscription fees raked in over $400 million from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, according to research done by Avast.
The so-called “fleeceware” takes advantage of a weakness in both app stores: deleting an application tied to a subscription doesn’t cancel the subscription.
Subscription apps are thriving right now, and nowhere more so than on iOS. According to a new report from app analytics platform Sensor Tower, worldwide spending on the top 100 subscription apps on the App Store generated $10.3 billion in 2020.
That’s a massive 32% increase from the $7.8 billion spent in 2019. It’s also close to four times what Android apps in the Google Play store pulled in in 2020. (They earned just $2.7 billion.)
Despite far fewer installs than the Google Play app store, Apple’s iOS App Store raked in $19 billion to Google’s $10.3 billion in the third quarter of 2020, according to a new report by Sensor Tower.
Overall spending grew 32 percent in the quarter across both platforms. Meanwhile, overall installs increased 23.3 percent to a total of 36.5 billion. These record-breaking numbers likely had a lot to do with the coronavirus pandemic, which shut down large parts of the economy, but caused a spike in interest for developers while people were stuck home.
South Korea may be joining the countries scrutinizing tech giants’ ownership of app stores.
Local startups have submitted a petition to the Korea Communications Commission, requesting an investigation into Apple and Google regarding whether the tech giants are violating laws by charging 30% commission on app purchases.
Epic Games launched the Fortnite Mega Drop on Thursday. This offers up to 20% discounts on in-app purchases made on iPhone, iPad or Android, as long as these are direct payments — not ones that go through the App Store or Google Play.
And V-Bucks or real-money purchases made on Mac, PC and other platforms are also discounted by up to 20%.
Update: Apple responded by expelling Fortnite from the App Store.
Total App Store spending surged to a massive $32.8 billion in the first half of 2020, combining money spent on premium downloads, subscriptions, and in-app purchases, a recent blog post from app analytics firm Sensor Tower suggests.
Not only is that an enormous amount of cash, but it’s also close to double the estimated gross revenue spent in the Google Play store, despite the bigger market share enjoyed by Android. User spending on Google Play reportedly hit $17.3 billion in the first half of the year.
A brand-new Tetris game today landed on iOS — just a day after EA confirmed it is retiring its own lineup of Tetris titles.
The game promises to deliver the traditional Tetris gameplay experience millions of fans around the world already know and love. But this is not the Tetris Royale title that was announced last year.
Christmas Day turned out to be one of the biggest moneymaking days ever for Apple and Google as far as app sales go.
SensorTower published its latest report of holiday app sales revealing that overall spending on the App Store and Google Play topped $277 million on Christmas Day. Thanks to consumers who had just been gifted new devices and gift cards, spending rose 11% compared to last year, and games were the biggest winner.
Dutch regulators are investigating complaints by developers that Apple promotes its own apps over others in the App Store.
News of the anti-trust probe comes on the heels of Spotify filing a formal antitrust complaint with the European Union.
You’d think that most of the subscribers to Apple Music would be firmly locked into the Apple ecosystem. That may be true, but new figures suggest that there are quite a few listeners on Android as well.
Figures shared by Sensor Tower‘s Store Intelligence platform suggest that 40 million Android users have installed the Apple Music app from Google Play. Not only that, but the analytics firm believes that the “current quarter will be the service’s best yet for new users on the platform.”
Apple Music is finally compatible with Android tablets, more than three years after it launched on Android phones. Apple started beta testing the larger interface last month, and now it’s rolling out to everyone in the latest Play Store update.
The App Store raked in almost twice as much revenue as Google Play in 2018, despite significantly fewer downloads.
Google’s marketplace did enjoy a 27.3 percent rise in gross app revenue year-over-year — a larger rise than Apple’s — but iOS remains the most lucrative platform for developers by far.
Fortnite Battle Royale will be exclusive to Samsung devices when it finally comes to Android, a new leak has confirmed.
The upcoming Galaxy Note 9 or a second Samsung device will be required to play the game initially. Even if you happen to obtain the Fortnite package for Android, it won’t run on your handset until Samsung’s exclusive deal comes to an end.
It’s not yet clear exactly how long that will last.
In the battle of the mobile software stores, Apple has a huge lead. Consumers spending in the iOS App Store during the first half of this year was almost double that of rival Google Play.
But there’s good news for both companies, as each experienced solid year-over-year growth.
Owning digital movies used to be a pain in the neck. Movies bought on iTunes were trapped on Apple devices, Google Play movies on Google’s service, and Amazon purchases in Prime Video. At the same time digital copies included with DVD and Blu-rays were often stuck in services like Vudu, Flixter, or UltraViolet. With Movies Anywhere, you can finally sync most of your movies across various services, putting your movies everywhere you want to watch.
Ark: Survival Evolved is now available on Android and iOS.
The popular survival game from Studio Wildcard is completely free-to-play and in-app purchases aren’t necessary. The only thing you need to worry about is staying alive in a world dominated by dinosaurs.