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https://www.mylookout.com/appgenome
Highlights
Platform Wars: Growth of Apps in The Android Market Outpaces Apple App Store, but iOS Still Attracts Far More Developers
The number of apps available on the Android Market increased by approximately 127% since August 2010, while the Apple App Store grew at a relative rate of 44%. If each market continues to grow at the same rate, the Android Market will have more apps than the Apple App Store by mid-2012. Android Market developers typically release more apps than Apple App Store developers. On average the Android Market has 6.2 apps per developer and the Apple App Store has 4.8 apps per developer. Note, App Genome Project replicates the experience of a U.S. user. For both the Android Market and Apple App Store it only accounts for apps available for download to U.S. users.
App Economy: The Android Market is Maturing with Growth in Paid Apps
The Android Markets prevalence of paid apps increased from 22% in August 2010 to 34% in February 2011, whereas the proportion of paid apps in the Apple App Store decreased slightly during the same period, going from 71% to 66%. Android Market price points have increased: the proportion of paid Android Market apps costing $0.99 or less decreased from 61% in August 2010 to 37% in February 2011. In terms of advertising within apps, the Google AdMob SDK is integrated into more free apps in both the Android Market and the Apple App Store than any other ad platform, though iAd is quickly gaining
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Personal Info: Nearly One Third of Apps in Android Market and Apple App Store Access Users Location
The Apple App Store has a higher prevalence of apps with the capability to access contacts and location than the Android Market. 28% of all apps in the Android Market and 34% of all free apps in the Apple App Store have the capability to access location. 7.5% of Android Market apps and 11% of Apple App Store apps have the capability to access users contacts.
Alternative App Markets: Increase Choice of Apps, but Some Have a Higher Propensity for Security Risks
The App Genome Project analyzed two alternative markets for Android that target Chinese users. While these markets serve a legitimate need for localized apps, they also host pirated and repackaged apps. Nearly 11% of the apps also available on the Android Market were found to be repackaged and likely submitted by someone other than original developer. Of these repackaged apps, a quarter request more permissions than the original app. In the case of iOS, alternative markets provide owners of jailbroken devices access to unique or pirated apps. We found that one of the markets we analyzed predominately hosts pirated apps (85%). 8% of all paid apps in the Apple App Store were found pirated on one alternative iOS market.
Methodology
The data for this specific report is drawn from the Android Market, the Apple App Store, and four specific alternative marketstwo for Android and two for iOS. When analyzing apps available at a particular point in time, this report considers the most recent version of each application that was available at that point in time so as not to count updates as separate apps; if an app is unpublished from the market at that point in time, the most recently available version of that app is used. Data gathered from the Android Market and Apple App Store was analyzed to replicate the experience of a user in the United States; applications are not counted if they are not available to US users. When analyzing applications for capabilities and the presence of SDKs, the App Genome Project analyzes binaries for free applications in order to detect the presence of particular types of code. As with any form of static analysis results, it is important to note that even if a given application has the capability to access a particular type of sensitive data or has a particular SDK present, the application does not necessarily utilize that capability or the included SDK when run on a device. top of page
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The Apple App Store is still in pole position in terms of total apps with nearly 350kby adding 100k new apps in the past 6 months. The Android Market has fewer apps, at nearly 90k, but has added nearly 50k in the last 6 months, more than doubling its size [fig1]. Note, App Genome Project replicates the experience of a U.S. user. For both the Android Market and Apple App Store it only accounts for apps available for download to U.S. users.
300k
Number of Apps
200k
100k
0k
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Fig. 1 The Android Market may be growing at a faster rate than the Apple App Store, but the Apple App Store continues to attract a significant portion of developers. The number of unique developers publishing applications in the Android Market and Apple App Store is growing at a comparable rate for each platformwith Apple slightly in the lead. The Apple App Store attracted nearly 24k developers between August 2010 and February 2011, whereas the Android Market attracted just over 4k developers in the same time period [fig2]. The number of unique developers in the Apple App Store grew by approximately 48% over the past 6 months, while the number of unique developers in the Android Market grew by just over 40% [fig2]. The Android Market generally has more apps per developer than the App Store [fig3]. The average number of apps submitted per developer is 6.6 in the Android Market and 4.8 in the App Store [fig3].
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Number of Developers
60k
40k
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Fig. 2
Percentage of Developers
75
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25
Android Market
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[fig4].
Free vs. Paid Apps in Android Market and Apple App Store
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Percentage of Apps
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25
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Fig. 4 In the Android Market, prices have shifted upwards whereas in the Apple App Store, prices have remained relatively steady. More than 95% of paid apps in the Android Market cost less than $10, though the prevalence of apps priced greater than $10 has significantly increased during the past 6 months [fig5]. While most Android Market apps are priced at $2.99 or less (73%), the $0.99 or less price point has seen a major decrease [fig5]. The largest areas of growth in the Android Market are in apps priced between $1-$9.99, with both the $1-$2.99 and $3-$9.99 segments seeing significant growth [fig5]. In the Apple App store, price points have for the most part remained steady [fig6].
75
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Fig. 5
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40
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Fig. 7
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applications that accidentally access personal information and more applications that do so purposefully. 28% of free apps in the Android Market and 34% of free apps in the Apple App Store have the capability to access location [fig9 and10]. 7.5% of free apps in the Android Market and 11% of free apps in the Apple App Store have the capability to access contacts [fig9 and 10]. Over the past 6 months, the prevalence of apps in the Android Market that have the capability to access location has decreased modestly by approximately 1.6%, while the prevalence of apps having the capability to access contacts has decreased by approximately 0.6%. In the same time period, the prevalence of free apps in the Apple App Store that have the capability to access location has decreased by approximately 2.6% and the prevalence of apps having the capability to access contacts has decreased by approximately 3.6% [fig9 and 10].
30
25
20
15
10
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Fig. 9
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Redistributed 36.3%
Unique 61.4%
Fig. 11 Looking inside the apps on the alternate markets that also appear for free or paid in the official Android Market (i.e. redistributed and pirated, respectively), we found that some were likely modified by a third party (i.e. repackaged) before being uploaded to the alternate market. Of the repackaged apps, many also requested access to more permissions than their legitimate counterparts. The additional permissions requested by repackaged apps often include access to location, contact information, phone information (e.g. phone number, IMEI, IMSI), Internet access, and the ability to place phone calls. The repackaging of these apps, along with the requests for additional access to sensitive information, is often the effect of a third-party adding an illegitimate ad network or malicious code having functionality such as making premium rate phone calls or sending premium rate SMS messages without the users knowledge. There have been multiple instances in the past few months where repackaged apps in alternative Android markets have served as hosts for malware. The Geinimi Trojan found earlier this year is an example of this. Nearly 11% of apps in alternative markets that are also available in the Android Market are
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repackaged (i.e. likely modified by a third party). Of the repackaged apps, nearly a quarter request more permissions than the original version in the Android Market [fig 12]. Over 6% of apps in alternative markets that are also available in the Android Market are pirated. Of these, approximately 14% request additional permissions than their paid counterparts [fig 12].
Legitimate 82.6%
Fig. 12
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Pirated 85.1%
Unique 99.6%
Fig. 13
Conclusion
Over the past six months there have been major developments in the mobile app ecosystem, particularly due to the growing and rapidly maturing Android Market. We expect both the Android Market and Apple App Store to continue growing at a rapid clip, especially given the overall growth of both platforms. As both developer skill increase and user awareness about private data accessed by apps increase, we expect app developers to more judiciously access it. We also expect to see more consolidation in the number of ad SDKs in the market with some of the smaller players perhaps leaving the market. Alternative app markets for both Android and iOS exist to fulfill a specific need not covered by official markets. The Android alternative markets meet a regional need not covered by the Android Market, and in the case of iOS, alternative markets provide owners of jailbroken devices access to unique or pirated apps. While the uses for alternate markets differ, the data indicates a significantly lower degree of curation and therefore a higher risk of threats. For both Android and iOS, the conclusion is the same: users need to apply extra caution in downloading apps from alternative markets to mitigate the risk of downloading malicious, pirated or repackaged applications. As the overall app ecosystem continues to evolve with the addition of new alternative app markets, strategic moves made by the competing platforms and heightened awareness about the capabilities of the apps on our devices, we expect to see even more dynamic changes in the coming months. top of page
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