Sign of the Times: Google Play Now Bigger Than Apple’s iOS App Store

Google enjoyed surpassing Apple long ago with regards to shipping Android devices (it currently sits at about 75%), and today, it can gloat about having the more active app store, too. However, where Apple's concerned, there's usually more than meets the eye, and depending on your perspective, it still places first - where it counts. During Q2, Google's Play store generated 10% more downloads, but it reported less than half the revenue; Google sits at about ~$45 million, Apple at ~$100 million.

Part of Google's boost came from India and Brazil, the latter which now joins India and Russia to sit in the top 5 countries for both Apple's and Google's respective app stores, in terms of overall downloads. Both app stores owe the bulk of their downloads to games, and with the sheer number of "free" games out there, that's hardly a surprise. Ironically, though, it's these "free" games that tend to be the highest grossing, on at least Android. Interesting how that works, isn't it?

Games account for about 80% of Google's action, and 75% of Apple's. On the iOS side, music and social paid apps helped drive extra revenue there, and on Android, communication apps bolted to #2, to settle in just behind games; the travel category experienced a boost as well, up to #5.

Some other interesting facts: The United States lead the pack in both overall downloads and revenue generated in Apple's App Store, while it sits at #3 for Google Play, revenue-wise. Japan heads-up Google's Play Store for revenue-generated, but unbelievably doesn't even place in the top 5 in terms of overall downloads. South Korea places #2 for both of Android's metrics. 

With this sort of app download growth on the Android side, it's going to be interesting to see how the trend continues into the next quarter.