MagicSolver

Show me the money

Developereconomics.com has conducted a survey of 6,000 mobile developers to try to understand which revenue models are the most popular and successful. Not surprisingly, this depends on a number of factors including the type of app that is being developed and which app store the app will end up on.

For example, DeveloperEconomics.com points out that, whilst WhatsApp and Angry Birds are paid for apps on iOS, they are free on Android. Around 40% of developers use iOS as their primary platform, with 30% focussing on Android and 20% leaning towards HTML5.

iOS continues to provide the most revenue generation for developers. iOS delivers an average return of $5,200 per developer per month, with Android apps delivering some 10% less revenue, so it seems that the Apple platform is still the most effective means of monetising app development. We at Magicsolver were surprised that the delta between iOS and Android was only 10%, suggesting that, with the larger volumes of Android devices currently being sold worldwide, Android could soon become the platform of choice for developers. Windows Phone apps were generating an average of $3,600 per developer per month with Blackberry a paltry $1,200 in comparison.

Whilst in app purchases was a popular business model on iOS and Windows Phone, Blackberry 10 developers focussed on pay per download as their primary model for revenue. In-app advertising and in-app purchases accounted for almost half of all Android developers’ choice of revenue model.

Find out about the study in this very interesting article here.