App Purchases Are Adding Up
Take the Poll at the Bottom of the Post!
Recession? What recession? According to a survey from ABI Research, many U.S. consumers are spending hundreds of dollars per year on mobile applications. Over 15 percent of those surveyed had spent nearly $100 over the past twelve months and a surprising 16.5 percent had spent between $100 and $500 during that same time frame.
Apple's Impact on Mobile App Sales
With the high level of spending being reported, those unfamiliar with the mobile industry could easily be led to believe that mobile applications must cost a pretty penny. However, just the opposite is true - mobile applications are relatively inexpensive - often only a dollar or two on iTunes for example. That makes the amount of money being spent all the more telling - people aren't just buying apps, they're buying a lot of apps.
Yet it's those App Store prices that ABI analyst Jeff Orr claims are hurting the overall mobile industry. "If you exclude Apple from the mix, applications for other platforms cost about $7-25 each," he says. "Many developers, lacking the resources to author applications for all available smartphone platforms, have to focus on one. That means they have a 'margin vs. volume' quandary: sell many copies for the iPhone at a very low price of which the developer receives 70%, or sell fewer via one of the other application storefronts, but charge a higher price and earn more per transaction."
On the other hand, however, Orr notes that Apple did a lot for the industry with their marketing campaigns for mobile applications. Their efforts led to sort of a 'halo' effect that has positively impacted the sales of apps on non-Apple platforms.
Some Big Caveats About These Numbers
Before everyone takes these survey numbers to the bank, though, it's important to look at them a bit more closely.
First of all, the sample size of this survey was far too small - only 235 smartphones owners were involved. That may be enough to hint towards a trend that requires further research, but it's not large enough to drawn any concrete conclusions from.
Secondly, smartphone users who didn't install an application weren't included in the survey so, obviously, the data is skewed here as well. The survey results seem to imply that application purchases are something all smartphone owners do, but that is not the case. We imagine there are probably tons of executives out there whose Blackberry devices are used for two things only: phone calls and emails. That said, it seems once you cross over to being an application buyer, the sky's the limit when it comes to spending.
One final note about the survey is that the findings are self-reported and most people don't do very well at estimating how much they've spent over a period of time. We could probably ask our readers a similar question and report our findings as "research" too.
Hmm, let's do that:
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"How Much Did You Spend on Mobile Applications in the Last Year? "
...considering I just got my Android phone yesterday: $0.00
:P
Android Market paid apps not well represented in this post BTW!
Sarah wrote: “...smartphone users who didn’t install an application weren’t included in the survey...”
On the contrary, one of the survey response choices was “$0 or None” for estimating how much was spent in the last 12 months. The largest group of respondents said they spent less than $100, followed by those who spent "$0 or None", followed by the $100~$499 cluster.
What’s surprising about the $100~$499 cluster is that is the same range one should expect to spend on a new smartphone (discounting any carrier subsidies), meaning that 17% of US smartphone consumers spent the same or more for applications than they did for the device itself.
Non-smartphone users were excluded from answering the smartphone parts of the survey, so their contribution to mobile application revenues were not counted.
As for consumers inability to say how much they spent in the past year, you're selling your readers short. People are much more accurate at telling you what they did versus asking them what they will do (where human nature tends to be conservative).
Great article ~
I find it interesting times when digital security falls below playful applications in what buyers desire.
Just take a look at http://www.justaskgemalto.com. Fascinating site.
Playing around is like yesterday.
I use Nokia E71, which comes fairly loaded with good apps..
Valencio
http://www.DesktopBudget.com
@1 "How Much Did You Spend on Mobile Applications in the Last Year? " - Yeah, how about the Android Market paid apps overall? where is this area heading to?
Raivo Pommer
raimo1@hot.ee
Depfa Bank Krise
Es handelt sich dabei um eine nachrangige Anleihe über 500 Millionen Euro. Die für den 21. März geplante Zinszahlung falle nach einem Beschluss des Verwaltungsrats der Depfa aus.
Eine Entscheidung zu ähnlichen Papieren der Depfa stehe noch aus. "Diese Nachricht könnte das Vertrauen in das Marktsegment erschüttern", kommentierten Anleihenhändler.
"Das ist ein politisches Debakel", sagte Bankenprofessor Klaus Fleischer von der Fachhochschule München. Schließlich seien die Garantien und Hilfen des staatlichen Rettungsfonds Soffin in Höhe von mehr als 102 Milliarden Euro in die HRE-Gruppe geflossen, "um Schaden vom Kapitalmarkt abzuwenden".
Nach Angaben der HRE hat die Bankengruppe vier Nachranganleihen im Volumen von insgesamt 1,55 Milliarden Euro ausstehen. Zinstermine sind im März, im Juni und im Oktober. Der Analysedienst Dealogic gibt den Gesamtmarkt vergleichbarer Nachranganleihen in Europa mit 300 Milliarden Euro an.
The users were excluded from answering the smartphone parts of the survey, so their contribution to mobile application revenues were not counted.
The users were excluded from answering the smartphone parts of the survey, so their contribution to mobile application revenues were not counte