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‘Appy 10th Birthday: iOS App Store marks its first decade with £39bn in global consumer spend: study

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Happy Birthday to the iOS app store – 10 today. It is now a £39.82 billion turnover business, with 12.2% of year-on-year (YoY) growth predicted by 2022, says a new study.

iOS App Store revenue is currently outpacing the number of its app downloads. Some £31.87 billion is spent globally on iOS apps by a consumer, up by 52% in comparison to 22.87 billion of worldwide app installations, finds ’the data behind 10 years of the iOS app store’ 2018 report conducted by App Annie.

In fact, the store outcompetes Google Play with nearly twice as much shopper spend, despite a lower device install base. The iOS store has 66% of worldwide app revenue, whereas Google Play earns 34% of global customer spend.

The picture is contracting when it comes to an app instalment. Google Play’s number of global app installations almost doubles those of the IOS App Store, with 70% and 30% of global app downloads, respectively.

When it comes to the largest revenue contributing markets, the US takes the lead in generating a £40.1 billion of all-time iOS App downloads. This is closely followed by China (£39.9 billion), with a big leap for Japan (£9.5 billion), United Kingdom (£8 billion) and Russia (£4.5 billion) taking the last place.

“Consumers have shown year after year that they prefer in-app experiences to the mobile web,” says Simon Spaull, vice president of sales operations at AppLovin. “In the UK, more than 80% of mobile time is spent in-app, according to comScore. For retailers, this means having a good app is a must.”

He continues: “If an app underperforms or doesn’t have clear value to consumers, they won’t hesitate to uninstall it immediately. This is why we’re seeing a surge of retail apps that focus around loyalty rewards, real-time tracking, and exclusive discounts. It’s more than simply having an app, but getting consumers to come back to it repeatedly.” 

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