Although the rise of online app stores has been somewhat of a blessing for developers, it would seem that only a tiny fraction of them accounts for the majority of the revenue stream. A recent research shows that of the total revenue generated by these app stores, 50% goes to 25 developers.
These statistics were divulged by analyst firm Canalys, which revealed that during the first 20 days of November 2012, a total revenue of $120 million was generated through online app stores. Of this, 50% was earned by top 25 developers.
These 25 developers represent the big fishes in the app ecosystem. All 25 of these top-earners on app stores are game developers, with the exception of one, namely Pandora. Others in the list include the likes of Electronic Arts, Zynga, Rovio, Disney etc.
Most of these top-earners are actual brands which have been well-established for years. They have been able to carry their success to mobile devices and thus, dominate the app stores. There are a few exceptions such as Rovio, companies which built themselves as the mobile platform prospered. Rovio was a little known developer before its Angry Birds franchise became the most popular game on mobile devices.
These top developers are able to continue their dominance of the app ecosystem by launching multiple games and apps, each offering a different product. In this way, they are able to amass a fairly large user base.
According to a principal analyst at Canalys, Chris Jones, “With the holiday season now underway, we expect to see many of these top game developers employing discounts and special offers, taking advantage of their ability to cross-promote within their app portfolios. This is expected to ensure that over the Christmas period in the US, the dominance of key game developers will only increase.”
Interestingly, the dominance of these app developers is somewhat similar across both iOS and Android platforms, showing that Android’s open-source nature has done little to affect the apps trends among Android users.
Source: Canalys
Courtesy: The Register
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