iOS/Android app revenue gap narrows, but iOS still miles ahead

Business Insider created the above chart to show exactly how the revenue gap between iOS and Android apps shows up for developers.

While there’s no doubt the gap between the two platforms is narrowing, it’s also clear that in the metrics that count, iOS is still where you want to be. Ad revenue – read free apps – is where Android is making money for developers … 

When it comes to hard cash from customers – paid downloads and in-app purchases combined – iOS generates more than twice as much. Split out in-app purchases, and iOS generates four times the revenue.

In-app revenue is a particularly important one: while some of it will be upgrading from a free app to the paid version, some of it will be be add-ons that allow developers to continue making money from an app even after being paid for the initial purchase.

Overall revenue per download – the bottom line measure – leaves no doubt that the gap between the two is still very much alive: iOS developers make fives times as much money per download than do Android ones.

Back in June, Asymco’s analyst Horace Dediu calculated that users now spend more on apps than they do on music.

The overall picture of iTunes is becoming clearer every day. We have more information about number of users (575 million), what they spend on media and software and services ($20 billion/yr.) and, increasingly what they spend on each media type (about $9/yr on Software, $2/yr on books, $16/yr on apps $12/yr on music and $4/yr on video.)

Tim Cook said at WWDC that Apple had paid more than $10B to developers.