After researching data for a post that I intend to reply to, I found myself wanting to use mobile apps as a variable. The best app analyitc company that I know of, because I post their stats every month, Distimo, came to mind. Throughout my school and workday, I wasn’t able to pay too much attention to a headline I saw in the national media until I hit Distimo. The analytic company has conducted its own research and has presented its findings via their blog today.
The FTC is set to review In-App purchases because of heavy complaints its received from users, mainly angry parents. It’s no surprise it takes such outcry so the feds can respond. Children and teenagers may not fully understand the terms and conditions of the purchases they make in apps, as a result, parents are left with high credit card bills at the end of the month. FCC Chairman Jon Leibowitz stated….
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“Let me assure you we will look closely at the current industry practice with respect to the marketing and delivery of these types of applications.”
Distimo has examined data, and left us with this..
10 most grossing applications of January 2011 (Table 1) four applications do feature in-app purchases. Of those four, three are free applications i.e., all revenue is generated by in-app purchases. For example number 2 on the list Tap Zoo is a free application ranked higher than Call of Duty: Zombies that is priced $4.99. Tap Zoo will have many more users and hence the average spending of each player will be lower. This is supported by the top in-app purchases in December:
If you don’t understand, I’ll guide you using the top in-app purchases in December chart for Apple. For starters, Fourty percent of apps are downloaded via In-app purchase. The number one In-app mobile application downloaded is Tap Zoo and is free of charge. We don’t even know how good this game is, we just know its free, and can be downloaded instantly. Looking at the rest of the Apps, we see a pattern, which is price.
What Distimo is saying, is that access to In-App purchasing, along with a low to free price, will be the preferred choice of apps downloaded over those that charge and do not offer In-App purchasing.
Source: voices.washingtonpost.com
distimo.com/blog for more data studies