Apple's App Store Will Dominate Android's: Analyst

Apple has a head start over rival Google when it comes to respective App Store dominance, but research shows that this isn't likely to change anytime soon.

Using data from Androlib, a Web site that serves as a catalog to Android apps and also compiles statistics on how much they've been download, Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster the analyst concluded that Apple has a firm lead.

Google's Android Market has generated ~7% of the gross revenue that Apple's App Store has since inception, he told clients. In other words, it appears that Apple has roughly 85-90% market share in dollars spent on mobile applications.

Google's Android Market has made $342 million in gross sales since inception through November 17th, with 1% of the total 6.75 billion downloads having been paid for. In comparison, Apple has generated $4.9 billion in sales to date on the App Store, with 14% of 18.6 billion downloads having been paid for.

This shouldn't come as a surprise since Apple was first to market, and its app store ties into its top selling iPhone and iPod devices.

But while Google is making progress with Android phones, Munster believes Apple will hold onto its 70%-plus share for several years to come. They key is Apple's foothold of the corporate/enterprise and educational markets, Muster says.

We recently surveyed 25 educational technology directors at a conference on the integration of technology in the classroom , Munster said. Our survey found that 100% of respondents are testing or deploying iPads in their schools; no respondents indicated that they are testing or deploying Android tablets.

He also see a trend in education (which is mirrored in the enterprise) that familiarity with Apple devices among students and employees is causing a demand pull within institutions to also provide Apple devices.

These results lead us to believe that Apple will participate significantly in both the education and corporate mobile app economies, enabling the company to maintain 70%+ market share in dollars spent on mobile applications.