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Flawed study decides iPhone is for games, Android for apps

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Flawed study decides iPhone is for games, Android for apps

iphone-game-cjr.jpg

Trumpeting in its headline that "iPhone is for games, Android is for apps," Xyologic has managed to pull a singular feat: it's undermined 5/8 of its own name with the analysis that follows.

Xyologic compares the entire US Android Market against just the free iPhone offerings in the App Store, which is the first warning that its data and analysis is going to be skewed. Comparing the top 150 downloads between these weirdly disparate markets yields the following results:

Entire Android Market:

  • 85 of top 150 downloads are apps, with 91.5 million downloads
  • 65 of top 150 downloads are games, with 33.4 million downloads
Free iPhone Apps:

  • 50 of top 150 downloads are apps, with 25.6 million downloads
  • 100 of top 150 downloads are games, with 71.6 million downloads
If you didn't know any better, you could easily look at the numbers Xyologic came up with and reach the same conclusion they do: Android users certainly appear to be downloading more apps than games compared to iPhone users. But the fact that Xyologic only chose to analyze the numbers for free iPhone apps skews the numbers so far that the study is essentially meaningless.

Without including the download numbers for paid iPhone apps, or the download numbers for any type of iPad apps at all, Xyologic's study neglects the huge sales numbers of paid apps such as Camera+, Instapaper, Tweetbot, Snapseed, Apple's own iWork apps, iMovie, and GarageBand. None of those apps offer a "lite" or freemium version, while most of the App Store's most popular games do, which is another reason the free iPhone downloads tend to skew more toward games.

Looking through the current top paid downloads for both devices still shows a lot of games scattered throughout the category -- something you'd expect to see after the recent massive sales on games and many young users getting new devices for Christmas -- but that's a far cry from Xyologic's claim that Android users are downloading more non-game apps than iPhone users.

In the end, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Xyologic's claim actually is correct and that iOS users are indeed downloading far more games, both as a percentage of apps downloaded and in total number of downloads, compared to Android users. Apple's own marketing touts the superior gaming performance of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Game developers are consistently targeting the App Store more than the Android Market for a variety of reasons, and you won't find high-end titles like Infinity Blade II on the Android Market any time soon.

However, Xyologic's methodology in reaching that conclusion is badly flawed; to make a true apps-to-apps comparison between the Android Market and the App Store, you have to compare the entirety of both stores if you want valid results.

Because of deep discounts on games and the general focus on games during the holiday season, December will probably skew even more heavily toward game downloads than in the download numbers Xyologic obtained for November. If Xyologic or another analysis firm takes a look at the app download numbers for January 2012 and compares the Android Market against the entire App Store instead of just one segment of it, we'll have a far better idea whether "iPhone is for games, Android is for apps" rings true or not.

Flawed study decides iPhone is for games, Android for apps originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.




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There are indeed some great games for iPhone, but there are a few business apps on that iPhone that I just cannot live without.

The article is simply a "quantity not quality" argument.
 

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Considering I'm running at about a 100:1 App to Game ratio on all of my IOS devices - I definitely doubt that this study has any validity whatsoever - not that I especially care either way. :)
 
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I think I have one game on my iPad (wife wanted ) and none on my iPhone.
 
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I have personally quite a few non-game apps as well as game apps (technically, games are applications as well - the difference is really their use, and even non-game apps can then be further broken down into subcategories (utility, business, productivity, reference, etc.).

I think games may weigh in a tiny bit heavier on my iPhone and about 50/50 on both of my iPads.

I do agree though, if the original article actually used only the free offerings as a reference on the iPhone and all app offerings on Android - then their methodology for determining what is for what is skewed and overall would provide an invalid result - plus judging at Christmas time is the worst to do an evaluation. I know with the iTunes card I got from my wife, I bought games for the holidays. Unless I REALLY need a non-game app during the holidays, I'd rather spend on something fun to kill time.

For me to take them seriously, they (Xyologic) would really need to do the evaluation again, taken over (at least) a 12 month period (month to month) of the paid and non-paid apps of both markets and compare the results to get a more accurate picture. Plus there is the iPhone and the iPad (so phone devices and tablet devices) both of which provide a different user experience - for me personally I find it easier to use most of my productivity apps on my iPads then I do on my iPhone, but I find it more enjoyable to play a game on the iPhone then on the iPad (iPad just is so awkward sometimes while trying to play a game).

I could be very wrong, but right now I'd have to agree with TUAW that the study is very flawed and should be disregarded until a more accurate study could be completed.
 
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Ridiculously flawed when you take into account the recent numbers for mobile shopping. 91% of it was done from the iPhone with the remaining 9% split between Android/BBerry/Windows/etc...

So they took the user group most likely to spend money on something while on their phone, and then factored that out of the equation? Honestly, who conducts research like that?
 
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On the face of it this would imply that Android is eating away at more of Blackberry's market (business) than Apple's. Anyone who thinks that the mobile phone market is really still about business or getting mostly work done is a but out of touch. At the same time, after all these years who would have thought that an Apple made device would be a center for gaming?

The numbers are bunk, but still fun to speculate over.
 
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Considering I'm running at about a 100:1 App to Game ratio on all of my IOS devices - I definitely doubt that this study has any validity whatsoever - not that I especially care either way. :)
You must have a lot of apps or about one game! :p

I agree, this statement is pretty much ridiculous... Oh, and by the way, Windows is for gaming and Macs are for doing real work. :D
 
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Another study in how numbers can be qualified to support just about any position.
 

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