Amazon’s Android Appstore generates far more revenue than Google Play, and nearly as much as the iOS App Store. A recent study found that apps that rely on in-app purchases for revenue make the most money from the iOS versions of their apps, followed by Android versions purchased in the Amazon Appstore. Google Play (which recently replaced the Android App Market) came in a distant third.
The study, recently conducted by Flurry, compared “a basket of top-ranked apps” that are available in all three markets. The apps all rely on in-app purchases for their revenue. The apps average a combined 11 million daily active users (DAU). Beginning in mid-January, Flurry measured the revenue generated by each app for 45 days.
According to the data, the apps generated nearly as much revenue from the Amazon Appstore as they did from the iOS App Store. Apps from Amazon generated 89% of the revenue generated by iOS apps. Apps from Google Play, however, fell far behind, generated only 23% of the revenue gained from the iOS App Store. Check out the chart below:
Data like this could bode ill not for both Google and for the increasingly fragmented Android operating system. While Android fragmentation is not quite the problem that many pro-iOS apologists argue, it remains an issue. Though Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet is an Android device, Amazon has taken steps to make the tablet their own, including encouraging customers to get their apps from the Amazon Appstore rather than from Google Play. If other manufacturers o learn from Amazon’s success and create their own app markets, it could contribute to the fragmentation of the Android platform and potentially lead to