Apple's iOS App Store continued to dominate the worldwide market in terms of revenue gained from premium apps and in-app purchases over the first half of 2019, with the online storefront generating nearly 1.8 times the revenue of rival Google's store for Android devices.
Publishers behind the biggest apps in the App Store are earning considerably more from Apple's virtual storefront than from Google Play, Sensor Tower estimates suggest, with iOS apps bringing in 64% more revenue than Android counterparts.
As anticipated, Apple has updated its App Store guidelines to completely block developers from including third-party ads or analytics in kids titles.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has issued a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, calling on the pair to pull an app used to track the movements of Saudi women.
Nintendo's mobile "Run" adaptation of its Super Mario franchise was introduced with great fanfare at the introduction of iPhone 7 in September 2016. It has since reached $60 million in revenue globally, but more than three quarters of that has come from Apple's App Store versus Android and Google Play.
Apple's gigantic selection of App Store apps contracted for the first time in 2017, with the online storefront shedding 5 percent of its total app count over the year, according to a report from reporting platform Appfigures.
Google is improving the revenue split for Android developers selling subscriptions through Google Play, mirroring Apple's own policies for iPhone and iPad developers at the App Store.
While iOS App Store purchase volume may be losing ground from a marketshare perspective by number of downloads, Apple continues to dominate the market in consumer spending by a wide margin and still growing.
A report on global mobile app markets notes that Apple's iOS App Store remains the world's largest by revenues and is predicted to hold onto its crown as "the most lucrative" through 2021, although all of the world's competing Android software markets combined are expected to exceed the App Store in total revenues at some point later this year.
In terms of customer satisfaction, at least, Apple Music is the top-rated streaming music service, J.D. Power said in its first Streaming Music Satisfaction Study, published on Wednesday.
Google on Wednesday launched Family Library, a feature for the Google Play Store closely mirroring Apple's own Family Sharing for iTunes, iBooks, and the App Store — including some iOS support.
A new report examining mobile app revenues shows strong growth for Apple in China and from music and video streaming titles, and another big jump in the revenue lead that its iOS App Store maintains over Android's Google Play.
App Store chart-topping downloads of the hit game Pokemon GO have sent Nintendo's stock soaring, adding more than $7 billion to its market capitalization. However, the Japanese gaming icon is reportedly earning significantly less from app-related sales than Apple is from its App Store cut.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued warning letters to a dozen Google Play developers over their use of SilverPush software, which turns Android devices into advertising spy beacons to listen for and track the television programming users are exposed to.
T-Mobile on Thursday added several more video services to its "Binge On" program, most notably YouTube, one of the focal points of controversy about the promotion.
Google has struggled to attract a fraction of iOS' top-tier commercial app development for its own Android platform. The abusive language allowed in Google Play—for reviews of products the reviewer hasn't even downloaded—highlight another reason why so few developers take Android seriously as a platform.
Apple strengthened its position over Google in mobile app market revenue during the first quarter of 2015, helped along by massive growth in China, a country that now downloads more apps than the U.S., according to a report by analytics firm App Annie issued on Tuesday.
After years of depending solely on automated processes to weed out malicious or otherwise undesirable apps from Google Play, the search giant announced on Tuesday that it has added human reviewers to the mix in a move that more closely aligns its practices with Apple's.
Though Sony apparently held talks with Apple about debuting the film "The Interview" on iTunes, the movie is instead now available for rent on YouTube, Google Play, Xbox Live and Sony's own Crackle service for $5.99, while viewers can purchase the movie for $14.99.
Android on Wednesday received its counterpart to Apple's own iOS Newsstand in the form of Google Play Newsstand, a news and magazine subscription hub that will also arrive on iPhone and iPad in 2014.
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AppleInsider Staff
Malcolm Owen
Roger Fingas
Daniel Eran Dilger
Mikey Campbell
Mike Wuerthele
Katie Marsal
