The latest quarterly mobile app market index from analytics firm App Annie, the App Annie Index: Market Q1 2015, suggests that the Google Play store and the iOS App Store are following “different paths” as the mobile app market evolves. According to App Annie, “Google Play extended its lead over the iOS App Store in downloads, and iOS extended its lead in monetizing apps.”

App Annie found that “Google Play’s worldwide downloads in Q1 2015 were approximately 70 percent higher than the iOS App Store, up from 60 percent in Q3 2014 … On the other hand, the iOS App Store’s worldwide revenue in Q1 2015 was about 70 percent higher than on Google Play, up from about 60 percent in Q3 2014.” So the two trends, downloads and revenues, are practically a mirror image of each other, with the money metric benefiting Apple.

Some reports have underlined that this disparity is not exactly news, and that developers tend to target the App Store because it offers better returns, as well as a more uniform and predictable ecosystem. Others have claimed that it represents a challenge to Google’s business model and requires some reevaluation of same.

Myself, I don’t think this raises too many concerns for Google, which has long been content to grow its ecosystem into more markets, more niches, and more form factors without huge regard for immediate returns and monetization. The consequence of Google’s strategy is that it is tapping into a wider customer base in lower-income countries and into other demographics than Apple’s core targets anyway, so you’d expect less bucks per bang from Google users worldwide. As Google takes more and more of the global mobile market into its embrace, I doubt it’s losing too much sleep over the revenue issue.

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