Google Play at a Glance

In October 2008, the Google Play store was established. In less than 10 years, the number of registered users, reached 1 billion, across, 190 countries.    In 2016, the number of app downloads, was 82 billion, with 150,000 new apps, submitted by developers per month to the store.

According to the European Parliament, in 2017. The Android operating system accounted for 87.7% of all smartphones, and the store generated revenues of US$7.6 billion. In June 2018 there were 3.5 million Android apps in the Google Play Store.  Women account for 49% of Google Play users.

Android users downloaded on average 95 apps, to their phones, in 2016. The top installed app of all time on Google Play is Facebook, the top installed game of all time is Candy Crush Saga, and Adele – 25 is the top-selling album of all time.

According to the University of Columbia, the Google Play store. Allows registered users to download a significant number of third-party applications. Hundreds of thousands of developers upload their content to the Google Play Store. Millions of Android users register their details with Google and third-party services to download and use the applications on their Android phones and tablets.

The dashboard below represents 17,000 reviews of 277 apps, from a total of 40 countries across 43 categories. The data was scrapped off Google Play the app store. The digital distribution service operated and owned by Google Inc.       The apps hosted on the Google Play are rated on a scale of 1- 5.   All reviews, relating to the apps on Google Play were submitted in 2018. To download the accompanying report select Google Play store mobile apps.

Apps in the following categories that scored the highest rating, of (4.8) included; Tools, Productivity, Photography, Entertainment, Finance, and Health & Fitness apps.

Hence AirBrush: EasyPhoto Editor a Photography App from the USA, Revolut – better than your bank, a finance app, from the UK, the social app, Amino: Communities and Chats, from the USA, and Blackpink as if it’s your last from South Korea. All had average reviewer ratings of (4.8)

In contrast, Android apps that posted the lowest average reviewer ratings, were from the following categories; medical, entertainment and dating.

In this data set, the Samsung Health app, by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. from South Korea. Presented the highest number of installations at 500,000,000. With an average reviewer rating of (4.3). 

The number of installations for Amazon Shopping, by Amazon Mobile LLC, from the USA. Equated to 100,000,000, the average reviewer rating was also (4.3). Candy Camera- Selfie, by JP Brothers, Inc. the photography app, from South Korea.

Posted a slightly higher average reviewer rating of (4.4).  The number of installations is also 100,000,000. Finally, 8 Ball Pool, a spots app from Switzerland, average reviewer rating was 4.5, with 100,000,000 downloads.

The top five countries with the highest app reviewer ratings of (4.8) are the USA, for the Android app; Add Text to Photo.  China, for 30-day fitness challenge, Health & Fitness app.  South Korea’s, AndroZipâ FREE File Manager, a productivity app, South Korea ‘s for Blackpink as if it was your last, the entertainment app and the United Kingdom, for the finance app, Revolut – Better than your bank.

There are 97 apps attributed to America, with a total of 6,000 user reviews and an overall rating of (4.23). China had 1,729 reviews across 27 apps with an overall average rating of (4.24)

For the UK there were 1,296 reviews, with an average reviewer rating of (4.10). South Korea’s, average reviewer rating score was (4.39) across 760 reviews, and for apps produced by companies emanating from Finland, there were 760 reviews with an average rating of (4.5)

So, what is driving app, downloads? Internet penetration, the near universal ownership of mobile devices, and the establishment of app stores as a distribution channel for apps. 

Google Play, User Opinion

There are a total of 17,000 submitted reviews. For the Angry Birds' group of apps, there were a total of 480 reviews published in this sample.

In this data set, Android users submitted 80 reviews, for the fashion brand ASOS. The average reviewer score was 4.70 out of 5 with a sentiment score of 66%. This is higher than 52% the sentiment score across all 277 apps.

To evaluate the opinions of subscribers to Angry Birds, ASOS and other apps view the dashboards below.

Android, Apps in Focus - Categories

According to Statista as of June 2018, the total number of apps on the google play store is 2.6 million. Overall, there are more than 3.5 times as many free applications as paid applications.

The top five most popular Google Play app categories worldwide, by share of available apps in the first quarter of 2018.  Were Education, Entertainment, Business, Lifestyle, Tools and Personalisation, according to Statista. 

Health & Fitness Apps

The global mHealth app market grew at a CAGR of 32.5% in 2017 to reach US$26 billion. Mobile medical apps are projected to reach US$102.43 billion by 2022.   According to Deep Knowledge Ventures. The mHealth app market was valued at US$4.19 billion in 2016 and is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 44.2% over the next 5 years.

The number of mHealth apps has reached 259,000 globally in 2016. Drivers of growth in mHealth emerged from a multitude of sources

• Constraints on healthcare infrastructure make it difficult to reach rural populations. Hence health providers are using mHealth apps to compliment healthcare support.

• One-fifth of the global population expected to over 60 by 2050. This will place an additional burden on healthcare infrastructure.

• Rising trends in obesity rates will also have a detrimental impact on the health outcomes of citizens. And is driving the demand for alternative methods of delivering positive health results.

Health & Fitness apps fall into two broad categories; first generation apps that are metric focused and second-generation apps that are driven by personalised aggregate data.  

Advances in artificial intelligence enable the delivery of personalised recommendations. This may be one of the primary drivers of the high retention rates, experienced by owners of healthcare apps.

Sports Apps

Changes in technology are driving changes in consumer expectations. Sports fans expect to consume live streaming, on-demand content on their mobile devices. Supported by statistics and analysis in real-time.

According to Nielsen, established broadcasters, digital publishers, technology giants, and social media platforms are all converging on the over-the-top opportunity in sport.

Sports fans are migrating away from traditional pay-TV platforms to Internet-based platforms.

Smartphones are the most popular device, to live stream short, video content. However, for periods longer than 30 minutes, smart-TV and other streaming devices are used for live sports consumption.

Shopping Apps

Google Analytics reported that from June to September 2017, 40% of online transactions took place via mobile devices.  Apps are a significant propagator of online sales. In-app transactions presented a 30% year-on-year increase according to Criteo.

There are ten shopping apps in this dataset. ASOS a UK based fashion brand, app presented the highest reviewer rating scoring (4.7) out of 5. This suggests that consumer sentiment is extremely positive for the brand.

AlliExpress - smarter shopping, better living, reviewer rating was (4.6), this is a shopping brand from China. And wish – shopping made fun, by Wish Inc, scored (4.5).  To view consumers comments regarding the apps. I would encourage you to interact with our dashboard. 

In the retail industry mobile, transactions are now an integral part of the consumer shopping experience. From research, to price comparison, to purchase, consumers are, doubling down on the use of mobile apps for shopping.