iPhone App Store Pulling In $2.4 Billion Per Year, Killing Rivals All The While

Let's face it--Apple's App Store is big business. Really big. And if you paid any attention to the fact that Apple saw its 1.5 billionth (yes, with a "B") app downloaded back in July, you'd know that things still weren't even close to slowing down. But have you ever stopped to think about just how much cash is being generated in the store frequented so often by iPhone and iPod touch users?


AdMob's latest findings, which study usage habits of smartphone users, saw that around $200 million of apps are sold each and every month in Apple's App Store, meaning that said outlet is a $2.4 billion per year industry. That, friends, is wild. We'd venture to say that even Steve Jobs himself didn't see that coming when he introduced it to the world a few years back, and with the App Store pulling away in terms of content when compared to Android Marketplace and those other no-name app stores on other handsets, it looks as if Apple's cash flow through the App Store should remain healthy for some time to come.

AdMob also found that only $5 million per month is spent in the Android store, just to put things in perspective. Of course, that could certainly change as more and more Android handsets hit the market, but it still has a long, long way to go before it catches the current king. The study also found that each month, Android and iPhone users download around ten new apps, while iPod touch owners go for around 18 each month. Interestingly, the survey saw that iPone/Android users only download around eight free apps each month, while iPod touch owners download twice as many gratis. Here's something really crazy, though: around half of iPhone and iPod touch users will buy at least one app per month, while just 19% of Android owners spend money on apps. Granted, having a larger library of paid apps to choose from certainly helps out here, but it's still a pretty startling number.


Have you purchased an app lately? If so, in which marketplace?