Apple put out a blog post informing about the dominance of third-party apps on the App Store. It revealed that 99.99% of apps on the App Store are from third-party developers. The report was published by the Analysis Group, which periodically researches Apple trends.
What does the report indicate for third-party app developers?
Citing the report, Apple hinted that the App Store houses an overwhelming chunk of third-party apps. It means that developers are interested in designing apps for the Apple ecosystem. It also shows how the ecosystem users prefer these third-party apps more than Apple’s proprietary apps.
When App Store started, there were no more than 500 apps by third-party devs. There are over 1.8 million third-party apps that completely dwarf Apple apps.
Juliette Caminade of Analysis Group said, “The App Store has grown substantially throughout the years, sustaining an expanding community of developers and content creators and fuelling a massive and growing ecosystem. This growth reflects the dynamism of the App Store, its community, and its ecosystem, which benefits developers, users, and Apple.”
Categories of apps that dominate the App Store
Third-party apps from popular tech giants like Meta, Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video, outshine the counterparts developed by Apple. Even messaging apps show a phenomenal rise in usage because not every contact of an iPhone user uses iMessage.
Thus, third-party apps canvas the limited number of apps created by Apple. The report also states that the App Store is the second-largest platform preferred by game developers. Android lags slightly behind at the third spot on the list. A recent survey also showed that American teens prefer iPhones over Android.
Apple highlighted its efforts in creating a better environment for third-party app developers worldwide. It said that there were 40 SDKs and over 2,50,000 APIs available for app developers to tune their apps for the iOS ecosystem.
Moreover, it also provides open access tools like Everyone Can Code, App Development in Swift, and Swift Playgrounds. Apple stated that these tools reached nearly 2 million students and educators in 2020 alone.
However, the story is not as rosy as Apple claims it to be. The reports by Analysis Group don’t highlight the shrewd practices by Apple to maintain a stronghold on App Store. Many complaints exist, indicating that Apple aggressively pushes its apps on the Store. Moreover, the app developers pay a high commission for every app purchase on the App Store.
