AdMob, in its latest Mobile Metrics Report for January 2010, focused on how consumers are interacting with mobile apps on the four major platforms; iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and WebOS.
In addition to the normal metrics AdMob reports on, last month’s special section included an opt-in survey of consumers on iPhone, iPod touch, Android and webOS devices to learn more about how they are engaging and interacting with applications. The survey included 963 respondents across all of the platforms and revealed some interesting points on app purchasing habits.
iPhone and Android users download a similar number of apps on a monthly basis, with each platform producing around 8.8 apps downloaded per month by its users. Of the total apps, 7 out of every 8.8 downloads were free apps on the iPhone, compared to 7.6 out of 8.7 on Android devices- indicating that iPhone users are more prone to paying for apps over Android users.
The iPod Touch, however, produces 12.1 app downloads per month on average by its users, with 10.5 being free apps. Interestingly enough, the report indicates that iPod Touch users download 37% more apps on average than iPhone and Android users. WebOS users download roughly 5.7 apps per month on average, with 5.1 being free apps, indicating that WebOS users are far more apt to downloading free apps over paid apps, likely because of a much smaller selection over Apple/Android app stores.
The takeaway from the report in my mind is that Android is coming on very strong in terms of paid app downloads over the iPhone. Though the iPod Touch garnered higher numbers, it’s not quite a fair comparison. With Apple’s App Store having far more apps to choose from, its surprising that they’re not still dominating Android in terms of paid app downloads.
