Downloads on Apple’s App Store topped five million per day for the first time ever this past November. This figure, which counts total downloads of the top 200 free apps on the App Store, represents an 83% increase over last year. With strong holiday sales of smartphones, not to mention substantial projected growth over the next several years, five million downloads per day will likely been seen as comically low in the future.
This significant increase to over 5 million free app downloads per day is music to the ears for their developers, who rely on mobile ads to generate revenue. Advertisers have long figured out that an Internet ad requires lots of eyeballs to generate a positive return-on-investment, and ads displayed on mobile applications are even more difficult to monetize customers from. From the developer prospective, the larger audience the app receives, the more it costs to run an ad on the app, leading to more revenue for the developer. So anytime analytics data is released showing an increase in app downloads, developers are sure to be excited.
Of course, this analytics data only covers free app downloads. It’s also important to consider the amount of paid apps that are being downloaded. Success stories like Rovio (developer of the mega hit “Angry Birds”) show that entire companies can be built exclusively from developing and marketing mobile apps, and with a smartphone market that is still not fully tapped, the room for growth or entry of new companies is still very possible.
With lots of new iPhones being unwrapped for Christmas just days ago, it will be interesting to follow the trend of free app downloads to see if it continues upward.
