In-app purchases have become an important way of monetising applications in the Apple App Store for iPhone, says a new report from Distimo, an app store analytics firm, and Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), the global trade body of the mobile media and entertainment industry.
In the UK, 29% of the revenue of the most successful applications is generated solely by free applications that monetise using in-app purchases. A further 21% of the revenue is generated by paid applications that feature in-app purchases (this includes both the price for the application, plus the revenue from in-app purchases).
At most, 64% of the revenue of the 100 most successful applications is generated by applications that charge a one-off fee only in any of the countries.
The report also showed that the average price of top applications in the most expensive stores is lower than the average price of all applications, whereas in stores where apps are cheaper on average, the reverse is true, with the most popular applications having a higher average price than the average price of all applications,
The most used pricing tier for all app stores is under $2.00 (USD), except for BlackBerry App World, where the most used pricing tier is between $2.00 and $2.99.
And at least one third of all downloads of the 300 most popular applications in the selected countries is from the UK on both the iPad and iPhone. Also, significantly more applications are downloaded on Saturdays and Sundays than on weekdays. The difference between weekdays and weekends on the iPad is larger than on the iPhone.