Mobile application analytics firm Distimo has published some numbers on U.S. app stores that might surprise those who have had to wade through the mountains of free software on iTunes. As it turns out, it’s the Android Market that actually has the highest proportion of free applications available.
Android’s app market growth is also doing well, according to Distimo. Although the iPhone is still the king of the hill, Android is enjoying the fastest relative growth. RIM doesn’t fare so well by these same metrics – not only are they growing the slowest (below even Nokia’s Ovi store), but a particularly telling slide compares the price of Shape’s IM+ chat client on App World and on the iTunes App Store. If there’s any particular reason an app should cost $25 more on one phone than on another, feel free to let me know.
Now, one might make the argument that free is equivalent to low-quality, but Distimo goes to show that free apps that include the option for built-in purchasing of extras actually perform the best on iTunes. There’s a couple more interesting slides after the jump, but be sure to check out the whole batch on Distimo’s blog.
