$1 on Apple's App Store is 89¢ on Kindle and 23¢ on Android

Google could learn something from Amazon about how to run an app store

Click to enlarge.

For 45 days, from mid-January to the end of February, the folks at Flurry analytics ran an interesting experiment.

They found a basket of top-rated apps that are available for the same price on three major app stores -- iOS, Android and Amazon -- whose revenue was generated primarily by in-app purchases. Then they compared the revenue generated by those apps for the developers who created them. The results are shown in the chart at right.

Setting the revenue generated on the Apple (AAPL) App Store at 100%, it found that Amazon's (AMZN) apps generated 89% per active user and Google's (GOOG) Android apps 23% relative to iOS.

"Amazon, who forked Android in order to put consumers into their own shopping experience on Kindle Fire, is showing its commerce strength, already delivering more than three times the revenue in its app store compared to what Google generates for developers," writes Peter Farago on the Flurry blog.

"As markets mature, rational economic behavior emerges," he adds dryly. "Based on revenue potential, we expect to see increasing numbers of developers support Amazon.  We also believe that companies such as Samsung, the leading Android-supporting OEM, could also consider emulating Amazon's move to fork Android. "

Posted in: Amazon, Android, App Store, Apple, Flurry, Google, iOS, Kindle Fire, Mobile, Peter Farago, Tablets

• Flurry: iOS and Android capture 34% of U.S. handheld video market in 2010

  Tens of thousands of free and low-cost smartphone games are killing Nintendo and Sony

  The pie chart at right, published Friday by the mobile analytics firm Flurry, illustrates just how rapidly the platforms that brought Mario to a generation of videogamers are shrinking.

  It shows Nintendo's share of the multibillion dollar U.S. portable software game business collapsing in the space of a year from 70% to 57% while Apple's (AAPL) iOS and MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 15, 2011 10:47 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Flurry, Gaming, Google, iOS, Mario, Mobile, Nintendo, Peter Farago, Sony, Tablets, Video game

• Apple iOS: Master of the social gaming universe

  It's not ads that make social gaming companies money, it's virtual pink tractors. Flurry Analytics says Apple's in-app e-commerce function is where developers can maximize bang for their buck.

  At the Social Gaming Summit in New York City today, Peter Farago, Vice President of Marketing at Flurry Analytics revealed some quick-hit stats regarding social gaming app makers like Zynga who use free-to-play business models and rely on features like virtual goods MORE

  JP Mangalindan, Writer - Dec 1, 2010 4:43 PM ET
  Posted in: American Idol, casual gaming, Facebook, Flurry, Google, iOS, New York City, Peter Farago, social gaming, Social Gaming Summit, Zynga

• Flurry: New apps up 185% post iPad

  The spike in new development observed after January's unveiling continued into February

  In February, two weeks after Apple (AAPL) unveiled the iPad, Flurry Analytics reported a sharp uptick in the number of developers installing its analytics tools in new apps for the iPhone -- a device that shares the same operating system. (See The iPad that launched a thousand apps.)

  On Monday the company took a look at February's data and found MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 15, 2010 9:57 AM ET
  Posted in: App Store, Apple, Facebook, Flurry, Flurry Analytics, iPad, iPhone, Peter Farago

• The iPod touch generation

  Is Apple's iPhone-without-a-phone the McDonald's Happy Meal of mobile communications?

  Peter Farago of the mobile analytics firm Flurry uses data from its November report to make the case that Apple (AAPL) is quietly -- and successfully -- using the iPod touch to lock in a loyal base of under-age users who will eventually become the next generation of iPhone buyers.

  "While it is clear that the iPhone has significant short-term revenue MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 7, 2009 7:45 AM ET
  Posted in: Android, Apple, Flurry, Google, iPhone, iPod touch, Peter Farago