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Google Has Paid Android Developers About Half of What Apple Has (theverge.com) 129

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
From a report: I'll just pay a little more attention to the Android bit: a total of $80 billion paid out to Android developers, which is significantly less than the $155 billion Apple has paid out via the iOS App Store. Even if you account for Google allowing developers to use their own payment methods and made a bunch of other caveats, I suspect you can't avoid the truth. The vast majority of phones on Earth run Android, and yet it is almost surely the case that there's more money for developers in iPhone apps. That's always been the conventional wisdom, but Google's own numbers all but confirm it.
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Google Has Paid Android Developers About Half of What Apple Has More

Google Has Paid Android Developers About Half of What Apple Has

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  • eh. (Score:2, Funny)

    by msauve ( 701917 )
    So, an IOS user will pay for a fart app, and an Android user won't.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @03:21PM (#59690604)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by msauve ( 701917 )
        So, are you saying that Apple users need flight planning apps, and Android users don't? Or that Apple users pay for things they don't need, and Android users don't?

        • Re:eh. (Score:5, Interesting)

          by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @03:45PM (#59690746)

          My spouse has an app business.

          Some of her apps are free and some are not.

          For the free apps, the users are 40% iOS and 60% Android.

          For the paid apps, the users are 94% iOS and 6% Android.

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by msauve ( 701917 )
            You say that as if those were meaningful statistics without knowing the competition. Why would someone pay for one app if a similarly workable equivalent is available at no cost? Perhaps there are simply more choices available on Android, or better choices, or ad supported ones, or multiple other possibilities to explain the difference.

            • Re:eh. (Score:5, Insightful)

              by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @04:18PM (#59690930)

              Why would someone pay for one app if a similarly workable equivalent is available at no cost?

              I've paid for an app ($1 for lifetime use) simply to have a version that didn't show any ads. My time is worth at least $1. Never having my experience with the app interrupted by some shitty and annoying advertisement is worth $1.

              Perhaps there are simply more choices available on Android, or better choices, or ad supported ones, or multiple other possibilities to explain the difference.

              The statistics are pretty meaningful, but nothing you couldn't guess. Without looking tell me which is higher, the average sale price of an iPhone, or the average sale price of an Android phone. We all know it's Apple and that Apple customers tend to be wealthier. Putting aside arguments about why or caring about that fact at all, tell me which group of people you would expect to pay for an app as opposed to using a free, but ad-supported equivalent, the group of people with more money, or the group of people with less money.

              This isn't rocket science. Trying to invent other explanations is just ignoring the elephant in the room.

              • I have never been an iOS user, only an Android user. I don't download an app unless it has a paid ad-free version. If the app does what I need, I buy it. Always.

            • You say that as if those were meaningful statistics without knowing the competition.

              Here are some meaningful statistics based on what Apple and Google paid all 3rd party developers over a year and how many downloads of apps Apple and Google reported over that year. According to Forbes, albeit a few years ago, the average revenue per download was $0.10 for iOS and $0.02 for Android.

              That's 5X the revenue per download for iOS.

              • $0.02 per download for 10 million downloads beats $0.10 per download for 1 million downloads.

                I'll let you figure out how high the difference is. :)

                • $0.02 per download for 10 million downloads beats $0.10 per download for 1 million downloads.

                  I'll let you figure out how high the difference is. :)

                  That's nice, but your ratio is obviously wrong given $155B in payouts for iOS and $80B for Android.

                  Plus $0.10 and $0.02 were derived from published numbers from Apple and Google, total payouts / total downloads. Although this was a few years ago, as I originally mentioned.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Demena ( 966987 )
              Because it is secure

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by rtb61 ( 674572 )

            All that means is Android is a far more competitive app environment. You really have to compete hard to gain market space, real hard, even free and people wont take it up.

            Keep in mind Apple phones themselves are far from being 'competive' and use marketing and selling privacy to raise the retail price of the phone to extremely profitable levels for them.

            Those customers willing to pay for ego, will buy apps they never use, so cheap they simply do not care. The Android market is a far more cost conscious ma

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by N1AK ( 864906 )

              All that means is Android is a far more competitive app environment. You really have to compete hard to gain market space, real hard, even free and people wont take it up.

              Absolutely, if the only answer that is acceptable to you is that Android is better then you can find a way to hand wave this into proof of android superiority. I bet less was spent on Window Phone apps last year than android; by your logic this means that Windows Phone has an even more competitive market...

              A lot of Android phones are ch

    • Apple has a lock on the high margin part of the phone market and lets Google fart around in the lower end because if they took that over they'd get anti-trust cases thrown at them.

      If US regulators let Apple corner the online credit card payment market they'll have the high end on complete lock down. EU regulators seem more on the ball in this respect.

    • Re:eh. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @03:43PM (#59690738)

      So, an IOS user will pay for a fart app, and an Android user won't.

      A less blithe, more precise way of phrasing what you're getting at is that each iOS user is worth roughly 11x as much to developers as each Android user. After all, consider the following...

      iOS: $155B payout with ~15% global market share = $10.3B/1% of the market
      Android: $80B payout with ~85% global market share = $0.94B/1% of the market

      That said, the article doesn't mention whether Google includes payouts for ads in that number (I doubt they do, but let's cover it just in case). Apple's advertising business barely exists, so even if it's included in their $155B it isn't making a significant impact. In contrast, Google is by far the biggest supplier of ads on both iOS and Android, so if Google's advertising payouts are included in their $80B but are missing from Apple's $155B, the discrepancy between the profitability for developers on the two platforms is even greater than the numbers above would suggest. Again, I doubt they included it, but if they did it makes the numbers even more extreme.

      • A less blithe, more precise way of phrasing what you're getting at is that each iOS user is worth roughly 11x as much to developers as each Android user. After all, consider the following...

        iOS: $155B payout with ~15% global market share = $10.3B/1% of the market
        Android: $80B payout with ~85% global market share = $0.94B/1% of the market

        One important factor here is that a lot of google's market share is in the developing countries. I don't remember the exact figures but I think Apple was slightly ahead in the US, somewhat below in Europe and way down most of elsewhere.

        So it's not particularly surprising that an Indian farmer isn't buying as many fart apps as an American student on dadday's credit card. Not that this distinction matters to developers, but I think it's important for explaining the disparity, it's not that Android users are j

    • So, an IOS user will pay for a fart app, and an Android user won't.

      An iOS developer could produce a primary voting app that works, but the users who could afford it would for the most part be Republicans.

  • English matters (Score:5, Funny)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @03:12PM (#59690562) Homepage Journal

    "Google Has Paid Android Developers About Half of What Apple Has"

    Oh yeah? How much has Apple paid Android developers?

    Where has all the competence gone, long time passing?

    • Oh, see my first interpretation was:
      • Apple has $245B
      • Google has paid developers about half of what Apple has
      • Therefore, Google has paid Android developers around $122.5B

      • The thing that is rather amazing, is that you are only about 30% off. Google has doled out $80B to developers, according to TFA

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by steveha ( 103154 )

      I'm also very annoyed at the phrasing that either company pays app developers. No, users (also called "customers") who license the apps are paying the developers. For iOS, the money flows through the Apple App Store, and Apple passes the money along (after keeping 30% for themselves). Likewise Google doesn't pay Android developers, users license apps through Google Play, Google keeps 30% and passes along the rest.

      This is an absolutely terrible headline for this Slashdot discussion. A better one: "the iO

      • I get most of my apps from F-Droid. Some of them have donate buttons. They forgot to include that in the statistics, too.

  • Like seriously, doesn't even go into details as to how much percentage either one takes, and dismisses the ability of developers using their own payment methods as if it was seemingly irrelevant.

    This totally sounds like an Apple PR stunt, or one by someone looking to kiss up to Tim C.

    • Written by Apple PR? Like seriously, doesn't even go into details as to how much percentage either one takes, ...

      Actually if you go into the details it gets worse for Google. A while ago Forbes did an article on how much apps make. They took the amounts paid by Apple and Google to developers and divided by the number of downloads reported by Apple and Google.

      iOS developers made about $0.10 per download on average.
      Android developers made about $0.02 per download on average.

      So its really Apple pays developers five times as much as Google, not double, "per unit".

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sebby ( 238625 )

        iOS developers made about $0.10 per download on average.

        Android developers made about $0.02 per download on average.

        So its really Apple pays developers five times as much as Google, not double, "per unit".

        That's total BS and you know it; there's no "pays 5 times as much" here - they're not "paying per download" - all this means is that there's 5x as many Android downloads per paying customer. Which means there's more Android users (around 5x as much - that's the only "5x" of anything), and that Apple users tend to actually buy apps more than Android users do.

        There's no "ABC pays x times more than XYZ" crap.

        • iOS developers made about $0.10 per download on average.

          Android developers made about $0.02 per download on average.

          So its really Apple pays developers five times as much as Google, not double, "per unit".

          That's total BS and you know it; there's no "pays 5 times as much" here ...

          Its a very simple comparison. You take the total number of dollars paid to third party developers and you divide by the total number of apps downloaded. That yields dollars per download. That's about all the data we get from Apple and Google. The GP was claiming there are more free app options on the Google side, this comparison factors that in.

          they're not "paying per download"

          That is why the amounts are below the smallest payment to a developer, which is about $0.70. The dollars per download metric basically normalizes market payments by

      • Let's put this another way: $155B for 15% market vs $80B for 85% market means the TCO of software ran on an iPhone is 11x higher than that on Android.

      • iOS developers made about $0.10 per download on average.
        Android developers made about $0.02 per download on average.

        So its really Apple pays developers five times as much as Google, not double, "per unit".

        I'm not even sure how I could screw up an app so bad that my units of work would be per download. That would be legendary. Book-worthy.

        • iOS developers made about $0.10 per download on average. Android developers made about $0.02 per download on average.

          So its really Apple pays developers five times as much as Google, not double, "per unit".

          I'm not even sure how I could screw up an app so bad that my units of work would be per download. That would be legendary. Book-worthy.

          Its an average, total something / total units. The reason for units being being downloads was two fold. (1) Its the public data Forbes had, its how Apple described total activity on their App Store. (2) It captures the complexity of app revenue, an initial download being paid or free is incomplete. We have free downloads that offer in app purchases, subscriptions, etc. Once upon a time Apple even had their own advertising system and paid developers for ads displayed and ad clicks. The total paid encapsulate

          • If you have the wrong units, taking an average doesn't help. Duh? I really hope that is "duh" for you.

            • If you have the wrong units, taking an average doesn't help. Duh? I really hope that is "duh" for you.

              The unit of "downloads" is one that is commonly used by Apple and Google to describe the activity of their stores. Additionally developers also use the units of "downloads" to in indicate the popularity of apps. Plus there is the point you dodge, that free downloads can generate revenue eventually by producing in app purchases, a subscription, etc.

              From some googling:
              "Apple today announced that customers have downloaded over 50 billion apps [2013]"
              "180 billion apps had been downloaded from Apple [2017]"

              • "Some company told me to use this metric, it must be the relevant one for the specific context of the comment I was replying to."

                Weak. Sauce.

                Try to comprehend the units consumed by the act of programming. Then you can comprehend what was said.

    • This totally sounds like an Apple PR stunt

      If Apple wrote it, the headline wouldn't claim that Apple is paying Android developers so darn much money. How embarrassing for them!

  • That's surprising. (Score:3)

    by hey! ( 33014 ) on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @03:25PM (#59690638) Homepage Journal

    I wouldn't have expected Apple to pay Android developers anything at all.

  • The reason why (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kohenkatz ( 1166461 ) on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @03:26PM (#59690650) Journal
    There is an obvious reason why this would be the case. First, there are a lot more quality free apps on Android than there are on iOS. I use both platforms and regularly find no free equivalent on iOS of an app that I have for free on Android. iOS developers need to make more money than Android developers because Apple charges yearly fees to be listed in the app store and Google doesn't (and because the hardware to develop for iOS is often much more expensive).

    • Android hardware can also be expensive android has a very low end and a high end market. If someone purchases a $45 android prepaid phone chances are they are not spending much if any on apps compared to someone with the latest flagship Samsung. This alone makes comparisons with apple difficult.

      • My intent when talking about hardware cost was really more about the cost of the development computer. For example a $400 DIY build is perfectly adequate - and surprisingly good - for Android development. There's no way you can do that for iOS unless you are willing to deal with a Hackintosh.

    • Re:The reason why (Score:5, Insightful)

      by shilly ( 142940 ) on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @04:18PM (#59690932)

      Can you name 3 of those apps that do something useful which are available for free on Android but cost money on iOS? You know, just to put some evidence behind your assertion.

    • ... regularly find no free equivalent on iOS of an app that I have for free on Android ...

      Yes, but the developer may be forced to do an ad supported version on Android because sales on Android are 1/5 that of iOS (old Forbes articles, $0.10 per download on iOS, $0.02 per download on Android). A paid version is a more viable option under iOS.

      ... Apple charges yearly fees ...

      Irrelevant, $100, that's under 150 $0.99 apps sold.

      ... and because the hardware to develop for iOS is often much more expensive ...

      Untrue, an iPod touch is $200. Its basically an iPhone without cellular or GPS and it runs the current version of iOS. An $800 Mac mini is perfectly fine for iOS development and there are cross platform op

    • Wow. That $99 annual apple developer fee vs a one time $25 google developer fee really makes such a difference to a developer that they have to charge money for their apps!!! You do realize free apps get listed free of charge by both companies, right?
      • Sorry, but you are totally wrong about that. The only way to get free app listings for iOS is to be a nonprofit organization, school, or government. I know a lot of small business owners who have not developed iOS apps because of the annual fee. Their mobile websites aren't as good as a native app would be, but they don't think they will make back the $100 every year.
        • Annual developer fee != listing fee. There's no listing fee for free apps. Please get your facts straight.
    • I agree here. Some apps are that are on both platforms are free on Android and paid on Apple. It's because the devs know that Apple tards (excuse me...users) will hand over money without even thinking about it.

      Case in point, I do live audio mixing for our church. Our church has a BehringerX32 mixing board, that allows you to download an app and connect your phone or tablet to the board to do control of it remotely (handy during sound checks while walking around, and also nice for the band as they can

  • goes to show (Score:4, Funny)

    by ILongForDarkness ( 1134931 ) on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @03:45PM (#59690748)

    Both have fart apps. Only Apple users are dumb enough to pay for them ;)

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by qzzpjs ( 1224510 )

      Yes, but the android one probably uses the mic to record your own farts without you knowing, counts the occurrences, and sends the data off to unknown marketing firms so they can advertise room deodorizers to you. :^)

    • Finally, something that F-Droid doesn't have! I guess open source can't replace the stores after all.

  • I have a bunch of play store credit I need to spend before it expires.

    I decided to look for a music streaming app. The only one I could find that accepted payment via play store was Google music. All the others want their monthly fee through PayPal or credit card.

  • You don't get rich fishing for clever sharks, you get rich harvesting dumb whales.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      Well, whales are intelligent and sharks are not, but otherwise I agree completely (and got downmodded by the fanbois the same as you did).

  • My information is several years old... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ameline ( 771895 ) <ian.amelineNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @04:10PM (#59690890) Homepage Journal

    Alias/Autodesk Sketchbook was/is a fairly popular drawing app, and the Andriod and iOs versions are virtually identical (and when they were not free, were of similar price). At the point where both versions had been available for a few years (free and paid versions for both platforms), the user population was predominately on Android (roughly 80%), however around 90% of the revenue was from iOS version of the app. On Android, almost all users were satisfied with the free (and limited) version of the app. On iOS, we were able to persuade many more people to pay a couple of dollars for the paid version of the application.

  • This may be a bit of an objective view, but I develop on both Android and iOS and I find I can do twice as much in the same amount of time on Android than I can on iOS. I find the Android SDK way better documented. Just simple layout management works much easier on Android with ContraintLayout than the autolayout mess they have in iOS which often requires custom code just to close gaps left by the limitations of the UI layer itself. All coding aside, every time I upgrade my phone, I have to upgrade XCode

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      This may be a bit of an objective view, but I develop on both Android and iOS and I find I can do twice as much in the same amount of time on Android than I can on iOS. I find the Android SDK way better documented. Just simple layout management works much easier on Android with ContraintLayout than the autolayout mess they have in iOS which often requires custom code just to close gaps left by the limitations of the UI layer itself. All coding aside, every time I upgrade my phone, I have to upgrade XCode wh

      • I develop in iOS (and put up with the Apple crap) to get exposure to people who use iPhones.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tepples ( 727027 )

          In theory, another option is to make your application so compelling that iPhone users will buy an Android phone with no SIM and use it connected to an iPhone set to mobile hotspot just to use your application. It's the same strategy used by publishers of games that are exclusive to a particular video game console. But I acknowledge this won't be viable for many.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by seoras ( 147590 )

      I develop on both Android and IOS too. Or rather I did.
      My experience is the complete opposite of yours. I find iOS a breeze to write for. Android feels like an after thought by Google.
      There's a few things missing from the basic UI in Android, which look like they were omitted to mitigate Job's lawsuit against Google for copying.
      Tables is a good example. iOS does a great job with it's UITableView API. Android on the other hand...
      Then you have to deal with the mess of supporting a ridiculous amount of variati

  • Apple users waste more money. No surprise.

  • Of course they can cash out twice as much.

    No, not earned. That would imply they actually worked to add value of equal worth.
    But you can say "profited" too. Same thing.

  • Wealthier people spend more money. News at 11.

    • This is what is funny. iPhone users are not neccessarily wealthy. I make more than many people I know who have iPhones, yet I use an Android. Conversely, I also have seen with my own eyes, people who appear to be practically on welfare and barely make by, yet they, and all their kids all have iPhones. Why is this? Hell, pay attention, and I'm sure you'll see someone paying with EBT at the grocery store, and pull out their iPhone while doing it.

      It's more of a status symbol. It's not better. In fact

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GrahamJ ( 241784 )

        There will be outliers, but when you're talking about billions of devices I believe my statements holds true on average. The vast majority of Androids cost less than half that of an iPhone; there's no way that doesn't have an impact on wealth demographics.

  • Developers in a closed ecosystem earn more money than developers in a open ecosystem? That's amazing.

    Of course the lack of anything approaching real data to understand why the difference between the two ecosystems exists would have been nice, all you,be told us is that $80BN is less than $155BN...

    What % of apps are free in either ecosystem? How many apps were purchased in each? Average price per app? Etc.

  • It's not that Google paid android developers half of what Apple pays, that's just a f-ing clickbait title.. It's just that Apple's store made more money than Google Play did, and seeing that with Apple you have to pay for (almost) everything you want, it's not really a good comparison.

  • So many comments and most commenters have totally forgotten about the fact that absolute most Android phones are entry-level devices which cost less than $400 and bought by people who count their money.

    Meanwhile absolute most iPhone users have more money than common sense and they care about showing their devices off more than having something with an excellent price/features ratio.

  • Not really news. We have known for a long time that Android users are far less likely to buy apps; ad-supported is the norm. I'd also bet that the bulk of the money paid out by Google was for in-app purchases in "free-to-play" games rather than actually buying an app.
    • What is the ratio of paid/free apps in the Apple store vs. the Play store?
    • How many total apps are there in each store?
    • What is the average price for a paid app in the Apple store vs. the Play store?
    • What is the average yearly payout for a paid app on each store?

    Without those numbers, these numbers are pretty meaningless.

  • Does Android force streaming apps to offer subscriptions through the Play Store the same way that iOS forces apps to use the iOS App Store to process in-app subscriptions?

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