Developing an app is only half the battle. Even when the app is ready to launch, app companies will have to contend with a whole new range of challenges, from competitor apps to changing market and consumer preferences.
Apps are sold on digital stores, with the two main ones being the Apple App Store and The Google Play Store. Whether you are buying app reviews or designing your download page, each of these stores performs differently and can offer unique benefits to app companies. Let’s take a look in more detail and find out which app store is the best for developers.
Revenue and Revenue Sharing
Apps are expensive to develop. Even seemingly basic mobile apps can require significant investment in both time and resources, and companies must be able to generate a return on this investment to keep their companies and business strategies viable.
The good news is that both the App Store and the Play Store use the same revenue split for developers. Developers get 70% of the profits while the store takes a 30% cut.
You might think, then, that both offer the same in terms of potential financial returns. However, it’s worth looking at revenue of each platform as a whole before coming to any conclusions. In 2021, the App Store posted revenue of $85.1 billion, which represented 63% of the industry’s total app revenue. The same year, the Play Store reported revenue of $47.9 billion. This is an important distinction note, it would suggest that you are more likely to see higher sales on the App Store as it accounts for the industry’s largest share of app revenue.
Number of Apps
As the App Store records higher revenue, you would be forgiven for assuming that it has the highest number of apps. In fact, the opposite is true. The App Store had 2.11 million apps at the beginning of 2022, while the Play Store had a higher total of 3.3 million.
The App Store exclusively sells apps for Apple devices, while Play Store apps can be used on a number of different devices, which accounts for the higher number of available apps.
This is important and is something you must consider when choosing a store, you’ll need to assess whether your app will stand out from higher competition or whether it’s worth limiting it to only one type of device.
Quality Control
Given how widespread and commonplace the use of apps is, it’s vital that digital stores ensure they are only selling reputable apps. They do this through a process of quality control and verification, with each store following slightly different procedures. The App Store can often take up to 48 hours to review apps, while the Play Store can take as little as two hours. This is important to note and will give you an indication of both how long your app will take to become available and the quality of your potential competitors.
Conclusion
Use the advice in this guide and choose the very best store for your app.
