Today we are going to take a look at two “competitors” the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Primarily we will be looking at their differences.
Payment: Both stores have the same general set up: 70% of profits go to the app developer while 30% get kicked back to the stores. It may not come as a shock: historically, Apple has brought in more revenue than Google at a clip of $5.4 billion to $3.3 billion (numbers from a recent market quarter).
Sidenote: Could this be about to change? Recall my blog post roughly a month ago that detailed Apple’s legal battle that had the corporation defending that they did not have a monopoly over the developers using their App Store. Here is a link to the article: https://www.atsapllc.com/post/shocking-apple-verdict-reached-in-court
Description of Apps: The two differ a lot on this. For those of you familiar with the Apple App Store, you may recall that when you go to check out an app, the description is very brief. You have to click a button to disclose the entire description in full.
The Google Play store is set up so that the entire description from the app developer is visible at the very top. In fact, a recent study showed that Google Play Users are twice as likely to read the description of an application when compared to the App Store. I am no expert, but wouldn’t an app developer approve more of Google’s set up?
Categorization: Google Play prioritized combining similar applications under specific categories. For a long time, the App Store was not as organized in this regard. However, it seems that Apple has adapted on the fly and adopted Google’s categorization style. Makes sense.
Quality of Apps: As we alluded too in a previous blog post, the App Store does not accept just any app. Apple has harsh guidelines and a thorough vetting process. Due to this, a good amount of apps developed end up being not accepted by Apple. On the contrary, Google Play takes a more liberal approach to vetting apps. Thus, Google accepts some lower quality apps that end up hitting the market.
Wouldn’t that be a pain if the app that you put your heart and soul into ended up getting rejected?
Another argument: Why does Apple have the power to govern over developers and handpick apps to place on their portal? This is where the monopoly controversy comes back into play. Sure, Google Play takes a cut from developers just like Apple does.
Conclusion: It seems as if there are pros and cons to both. But it would be hard to imagine a world soon where Apple doesn’t dominate the smartphone market. The Evil geniuses are at it again.
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