proprietary apps less popular than third-party apps
On Apple’s own App Store, third-party apps are more popular than Apple’s own services. At least, that’s the conclusion of a study by economists funded by Apple. In this article we explain the numbers.
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Third-party apps are doing well in the App Store
A report by economists at Analysis Group (funded by Apple itself) shows that third-party apps outperform the company’s own services in the App Store. Apple has researched the United States, France, Japan and Korea. The studies focus on music apps, navigation platforms and the most popular video streaming services.
Most notably, Apple’s services almost always outperform the apps specifically targeting that service in these categories.
Music: Spotify often beats Apple
In the above picture, we see that Spotify is more than one and a half times more popular than Apple Music in both the US and France. The French Deezer is equally popular in that country. In Japan, the opposite is true; Apple Music is used twice as much as Spotify. The American Pandora and the Japanese LINE Music are less used than Apple Music.
An explanation for this trend is that Spotify came up with the idea of streaming music and is therefore still seen as an authority. Korea is the odd one out. There, ‘local’ app Melon is by far the most popular. This is followed by Genie, also an app from the land of K-pop.
Video streaming: Apple TV+ lags far behind
The ratios in the field of streaming movies and series are a lot more diverse than with the music streaming services. In the United States, Netflix is 17 times larger than Apple TV+. In France that is even 35 times. Hulu and Amazon Prime Video follow closely and are also still more popular than Apple TV+. These numbers are striking. CODA, an Apple TV+ movie was the first movie from a streaming service to win an Oscar. So it is certainly not the content.
In Japan, the numbers are completely disproportionate. There, Amazon Prime Video has been downloaded 407 times more than Apple TV+. Netflix also blasts over Apple TV+ (256x). One explanation for this is that there is no Japanese subtitles available on Apple TV+. No data has been collected from Korea. Apple TV has only just launched there.
In terms of navigation, expectations are also fulfilled. Google Maps is everywhere except Korea, where NAVER reigns supreme. We once made a nice comparison, in which we came to the conclusion that Apple Maps perhaps deserves a second chance. Waze, also from Google, is used in France about as much as Apple Maps. In Japan it is obvious: Google Maps gives the best representation of the country and makes navigation the best.
Some Conclusions: Third-Party Apps Outperform Apple’s Apps
The numbers are striking. While some Apple apps come pre-installed on iPhones, users are more likely to opt for third-party apps. In addition, it is noticeable that iPhone users often use multiple apps within one category. This happens most often with video streaming services. These all offer different content.
Apple knows how to bend the ‘loss’ well. For example, they price their own building blocks (APIs) for apps. In addition, they report that “developers have access to more than 40 Apple software development kits.” They can also pat themselves on the back through this wording.
The publication of this report from Apple may be related to the negative publicity surrounding the App Store lately. Some parties accuse Apple of acting too monopolistically. For example, they have previously received a large fine from the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM).
For example, you also pay 12.99 euros per month for a Spotify subscription. This is because the Swedish service still has to pay 3 euros to Apple. Apple Music is ‘only’ 9.99 euros per month. This is market distortion according to Spotify. In this way they participate in the game as a player and as a referee. Whether this report has anything to do with these matters remains to be seen.
