Apple keeps lion's share of app revenue despite Android 50% app market share

According to analytics firm Piper Jaffray while the split of app market share for Android is 50%, Apple is still making more money off apps. The firm claims that Apple has as much as 80 to 90% of the share of total dollars spent on mobile apps. The firm also states that the Android Market has generated only 7% of the gross revenue that Apple had generated.

This doesn't seem like an accurate tale though since anyone that has used the App Store and Android Market knows they operate in fundamentally different ways. Apple sells the apps whereas Google and many Android devs simply give the app away and make their money on ads. Rovio is a perfect example with millions made off ads in Angry Birds even though the app is free in some versions.

Piper expects that Apple will maintain that lead in revenue through the next three to four years. I wonder if the metrics were looked out with the eye on ad revenue from games if Apple would be the one with a small part of the market. It is interesting to note that the total downloads for Android Market as of November 17, 2011 were 6,750,000,000 compared to the total as of September 30, 2011 for Apple of 18,566,331,811.

[via CNN]