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US iPhone users spent, on average, $79 on apps last year, up 36% from 2017
- jammygit 8y agoIt seems weird to say users are spending the money on apps if this includes Amazon or Uber. The users are not spending the money on the app, they're spending it on the product and/or service with the the app in the middle facilitating the arrangement. Its different than purchasing software that does something by itself for you (like a spreadsheet). Eg, one doesn't say that customers spend $X per year on retail, they are said to spend it via retail. Not that the app isn't an important part of it, but a helpful and knowledgeable employee in a retail environment doesn't get the same headlines, even though s/he isn't a buggy, heavily gamed algorithm recommending baby gear to people who just had a miscarriage. 'Users are spending 36% more on eCommerce than 2017' doesn't have as nice a ring to it. ...also, what is the mean number? How much of that $79 is from there being no meaningful laws against Whaling?
- meritt 8y agoIt claims to cover IAP [1] only, which wouldn't include Amazon nor Uber as those payments go directly to those entities. Also many companies who formerly relied on IAP, like Netflix and Spotify, are starting to bypass it entirely [2]. [1] https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/ https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/ [2] https://musically.com/2018/08/22/netflix-joins-spotify-in-bypassing-apple-in-app-subscriptions/ https://musically.com/2018/08/22/netflix-joins-spotify-in-by...
- diafygi 8y agoI wonder what the median amount is. Is the distribution of revenue heavily lopsided to the whales?
- fipple 8y agoThe median is certainly lower than $79, and may even be $0.
- koolba 8y agoI think it would be if more people realized you can have an iTunes account without a credit card attached. They seem to make it harder with every UX change to set up, but if you don’t have a payment method you can’t give them a penny.
- bradleyjg 8y agoI don't think it is zero if uber and lyft count.
- tananaev 8y agoThe article is about app and in-app purchases that Apple gets a cut from. Lyft and Uber are in different category and don't pay any fees to Apple on ride purchases.
- jmknoll 8y agoJust to add a bit of info... in-app purchases are required for things like extra functionality. On the other hand, if you’re using the app as a gateway to a service that is provided outside of the app, you can process payment outside the app. Anyone who can reasonably make this argument tends to do so, as Apple charges ~30% of everything that goes through in-app purchases.
- fipple 8y agoWhat apps are in the gray area? To me it’s pretty clear and not much room for “making an argument.”
- llukas 8y agoTitle is bit misleading (non-native speaker here). Article is about in-app spending.
- criddell 8y agoWould things like Evernote subscriptions count towards that?
- Operyl 8y agoIf purchased through the app and you were billed by the App Store (i.e. you were asked by iOS to use Touch ID/FaceID/Apple ID password) then yes.
- sotojuan 8y agoIn-App makes sense. I’ve recently purchased a good amount of not-free apps but the only in-app stuff I’ve purchased has been “pro” versions of free apps I’ve downloaded. I’m guessing the former don’t count.
- post_break 8y agoOn android I spent a fortune because I knew I could refund it if the app was bad or didnt do what I wanted. On iPhone I'm scrooge. So far for 2019 I've spent $1.
- threatofrain 8y agoMany iPhone apps aren't well described enough for the user to know what they're expecting before they buy. And even legitimate refunds are obnoxious. Plus app store browsing and discovery sucks.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI would buy much more if I could try for a few days. I don’t understand why they can’t do this. Or better, they can, but don’t want to. This is outright user hostile.
- reaperducer 8y agoI would buy much more if I could try for a few days. I don’t understand why they can’t do this. Or better, they can, but don’t want to. This is outright user hostile. Talk to your app maker, not Apple. Apple started allowing free trials last year: "Non-subscription apps may offer a free time-based trial period before presenting a full unlock option by setting up a Non-Consumable IAP item at Price Tier 0 that follows the naming convention: “XX-day Trial.” Prior to the start of the trial, your app must clearly identify its duration, the content or services that will no longer be accessible when the trial ends, and any downstream charges the user would need to pay for full functionality." https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#payments https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#pay...
- meritt 8y ago.
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- threeseed 8y agoYes developers install this: https://sensortower.com https://sensortower.com And my guess is, similar to polling, that the company predicts from the data they do have.
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- mlthoughts2018 8y agoAs someone who has never once paid for an app or paid for in-app purchases, nor do I allow apps that show ads, I find this staggering. It’s not a judgment or anything. Just the idea of this is so bewildering and alien to me.
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- peapicker 8y agoAs a developer who gets paid to write code, when I find an app I really like, I also pay for it, if it seems reasonable. Like Overcast for podcasts, Nlog Synthesizer for use with my Korg nanokey for on-the-go music composition, filimic pro forr video and others.
- maxxxxx 8y agoRecently saw Overcast mentioned here. Tried it out and it’s exactly what’s needed. Much better than the mess Apple Podcasts has become.
- dangoor 8y agoPlus Smart Speed is fantastic. I can listen to podcasts more quickly without actually speeding up the speech.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI am already nervous that Overcast will add more features/redesigns and add social media until it turns into a mess like most other tools. Seems today's product development paradigm redesigns a project until the initial simplicity is gone.
- dangoor 8y agoOvercast's author, Marco Arment, seems pretty clear in his design approach for Overcast (I listen to Accidental Tech Podcast, on which he's a host). He's pretty resistant to things to don't help the core experience of listening to podcasts. For example, he's put a bunch of time into the basic audio features and making watch playback work well, rather than lots of flashy GUI things.
- ppeetteerr 8y agoWhy don't we wait to see the actual report? This article seems like the cart leading the horse.
- jaypeg25 8y agoYeah well that's TechCrunch.
- roenxi 8y agoThis information isn't very useful without knowing how the number of iPhone users are changing. This could be interpreted as a happily growing ecosystem, or it could be interpreted as budget oriented users being squeezed off the platform leaving only people who are locked-in to subscription apps. Presumably it is the former, but we can't tell that from the article because there are no absolute numbers.
- scarface74 8y agoWhy wouldn’t they if you’re buying the subscription through the App Store?
- graeme 8y agoApple said at their last call that they have 1.4 billion active devices, up 100 million from a year ago. Not quite people, but the userbase appears to be growing.
- oflannabhra 8y agoApple has 900 million active iPhone users, and 1.4 billion total active devices. [0] Analysts have had this range pegged for awhile, but in Apple's most recent quarterly report they officially revealed those numbers. [0] - http://www.asymco.com/2019/01/30/a-billion-users/ http://www.asymco.com/2019/01/30/a-billion-users/
- KiDD 8y agoHow much of this was due to Fortnite I wonder?
- pentae 8y ago$0.00. Fortnite bypasses Apple IAP.
- KorematsuFred 8y agoI checked my last years spend and it was $2.
- sandworm101 8y agoZero dollars from me. I buy plenty of software for desktops/laptops but have yet to find any app worth real money. But i dont play mobile games, at least beyond sodoku. Freemium games are probably the real driver. 75$/year is about how much i spent on NES games back in the day.
- rhinoceraptor 8y agoThere are a ton of apps that are "expensive", but worth it. Omnifocus, Overcast, Soulver, 1Password, Blink, Working Copy, Coda, Procreate, LumaFusion, Affinity Photo, etc. People spend upwards of $1000 on a phone, but are unwilling to spend a couple bucks on good software for it. It's ridiculous.
- jclardy 8y agoI agree. For me it isn’t even that - if an app can save me 5 minutes of time per week it is easily worth $5. Or if it is an app I use every day, if the experience is that much better it is worth the subscription to me.
- crooked-v 8y agoI wonder how much of this is the recent push by many devs for subscription apps, and, to go with that, what the breakdown is of the actual subscription apps vs people preemptively buying other apps to avoid future subscriptions.
- randomacct3847 8y agoI would love to hear success stories of indie app makers. There must still be a sizeable long tail of indie made apps that people are buying...
- makeshifthoop 8y agoI was reading Indie Hackers the other day and came across https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/turning-a-small-app-for-myself-into-a-17-000-mo-business-cb972c5273 https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/turning-a-small-app-f...
- pishpash 8y agoBoxed software used to cost that much or more each. $79/year is meager.
- benj111 8y agoBoxed software, as in productivity software that you might well use for your job? Well yes. Even looking at something like games though, deflation is reasonable. That game I bought in the 90s A. Probably still works now, isn't reliant on external servers. So cost/year is still lower. B. Was resalable if I didn't like it. C. Faced a lot less competition.
- innagadadavida 8y agoHow much of this is due to people not upgrading to new iPhones as the OS got optimized and they got free batteries - people spend more money when they have more left.
- m0zg 8y agoThat seems kind of crazy actually. I maybe spent $10 over the past year on apps, if that. I don't need yet another notetaking app, and I refuse to be bled dry by subscriptions.
- fucking_tragedy 8y agoI want to see what the App store whales spent.
- farazzz 8y agoWhat if this is partly due to non-spenders downloading less apps?
- __alias 8y agoWhile I spent a fair bit using app services (Uber, lime primarily), I've just thought about it and realised I'm a heavy mobile phone user but have spent < $10 in total on apps in the last 7 years of being an Android phone user. As a fellow app developer that makes me feel pretty guilty but there's always a free version of whatever I need and I don't play any games. Is there any must have quality paid apps out there anybody suggests?
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- londons_explore 8y agoOn Android, the average spend per user is much much lower, partly because the audience is different, but also because free Android apps tend to be much better than free iOS apps. There are lots of things on iOS you can't do without some paid app. Even silly things like "make my voice sound like Micky mouse on phone calls" is a paid app on iOS.
- Kiro 8y agoI've spent probably tens of thousands of dollars on mobile games. (I posted this as a counter-example to all the "This is baffling. I wouldn't spend a single dollar on apps." comments here.)
- sametmax 8y agoI have two conflicting stereotypes: on one hand I assumed people spending that much on mobile games would be uneducated, on the other hand I also assume people on HN are more educated than average. Thanks for making me coming out of it. So, now, you made me curious. How did that happen ?
- Kiro 8y agoIt depends on what game. Note that these are not just pointless money-grabbers but games I actually enjoy a lot and have played for years. In some it's the feeling of becoming powerful. In some it's out of frustration knowing it would take days doing something I can spend a few bucks on to skip. In others it's about collecting stuff. And in some it's solely about supporting the creators. I also use it as a kind of reward. I treat myself with a big legendary chest. With that said, I'm 100% guilty of falling for the artificial sensation they've manufactured with all the animations, sound effects and deals they put in front of me. These companies are experts on making IAPs "feel good". Finally, I have a lot of money (made a big exit) so it's not really a big deal for me.
- webmobdev 8y agoIn India, Apple continues to screw itself with its short sightedness by insisting on credit / debit cards for all Apple Payments and refusing to integrate itself with India's many innovative digital payment systems. Even though I have wanted to pay for a few games and 1 or 2 really good apps, I can't because Apple doesn't accept my indian cards nor other alternative indian payment systems. Nor can we buy iTunes / App store credit online. Nor are we permitted to use iTunes / App Store gift certificates from US or elsewhere. Personally, I wonder if this is because: 1. The central bank's (RBI) rule that financial data of indians should be stored in india. 2. Indian payment systems make it difficult to bill someone automatically (without the involvement of the payee). 3. Indian payment systems prevent "leakage" of your "credit worthiness" / credit rating, unlike credit cards.
- SllX 8y agoLast I checked, nothing the old iTunes Store infrastructure touches including the App Store takes Apple Pay either. For that matter, neither does the Online Apple Store app, at least as of May last year when I last tried it. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for Apple to stop repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to anything at all to do with their e-commerce platform.
- avip 8y agoAccording to media coverage, Apple put the UPI integration on hold due to "regulatory issues". That's mainly RBI data localization requirements ([1] on your list).
- mscasts 8y agoSo there is no way for you to buy anything of the appstore?
- genghizkhan 8y agoYou can. You just need a credit or a debit card. Personally I’m fine with it. I don’t know if Apple has integrated with any payment processors apart from credit card companies anywhere else in the world anyway; expecting them to do it in India would be a bit strange.
- martin-adams 8y agoI wonder if they do strictly mean iPhone or if that also includes iPad sales. I know I've spent more than $79 on iPad software which some I can also use on iPhone.
- habosa 8y agoDoes this count Spotify and Netflix and other subscriptions offered via IAP?
- dangoor 8y agoYes, I think this counts IAP subscriptions. Note that Netflix just stopped accepting payment that way, though, so for 2019 Apple's results will no longer include Netflix subscriptions.