Free apps stand ahead of paid downloads

The smartphone users today totally not interested in paying for the apps. Consumers who visit the app stores are coming with closed wallets and they prefer to download only free ones. A research has revealed that about 96% of the apps that were downloaded in 2011 were free.

The research firm IHS suggests that the in-app purchases are becoming new sources of app revenues. The game developers make use of this techniques that makes the gamers to download new tiers of the game. Therefore, what these companies are doing is downloading an app for free and then making them purchase certain upgrades by paying some cost.

The in-app purchase itself will account to about 64% of the smartphone app revenue within 2015 and it was about 39% in 2011. The free apps have accounted to about 50% of the top earning iPhone apps and to about 31% of the ones in Android Market. And also 68% of the top most apps have additional content or features through in-app purchases.

In the Android Market, the reliance on the free apps is quite high and as per a survey in September 2010, the download of free apps accounted to 65% and in December 2011 this was 69%. The repeated app visits and the in-app purchases will happen only when the stickiness to the application is more. Also the user engagement and experience are more important for the repeated app usage and in-app purchases.