The Winner-Takes-All Nature of the App Economy in One Graphic

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
The mobile app economy exhibits a 'winner-takes-all' dynamic, evidenced by the fact that 7 of the top 10 highest-grossing apps on the US iPhone App Store in December 2013 maintained their top 10 positions one year later.
02
Only two apps released in 2014, Madden NFL Mobile and Candy Crush Soda Saga, managed to break into the top 10 list by December 26, 2014.
03
Apple devices dominated the 2014 holiday season, accounting for more than 50% of all device activations between December 19 and December 25.
04
Consumer behavior during the holidays significantly spikes app activity, with app installs increasing by 150% on Christmas Day compared to the average rate of the preceding week.
05
The mobile hardware landscape shifted toward larger screens in 2014, with phablets increasing their share of new device activations from 4% in 2013 to 13% in 2014.
06
Mobile commerce remains a major driver of the ecosystem, as evidenced by Amazon reporting that nearly 60% of its customers shopped via mobile during the 2014 holiday period.

Summary

The app economy's rewards concentrate heavily among a small set of incumbents, and the post, published in January 2015, makes that case by tracking movement on the US iPhone App Store Top Grossing chart over one year, from December 26, 2013 to December 26, 2014. Its central thesis is that the holiday period, though lucrative for the whole mobile ecosystem, does not distribute its benefits evenly.

The key finding is the chart's stability. Seven of the ten highest-grossing apps on the day after Christmas 2013 still held Top 10 positions a year later. Only two apps in the 2014 Top 10, Madden NFL Mobile and Candy Crush Soda Saga, had been published during 2014, so new releases barely penetrated the top of the chart despite a year of heavy competition and activity.

The post frames this against a strong holiday backdrop. Amazon reported that nearly 60% of its customers shopped on mobile devices over the holidays, and IBM claimed that more than one third of Christmas Day online sales came from mobile. Flurry data showed that over half of devices activated between December 19 and 25, 2014 were made by Apple, and phablets rose from 4% to 13% of new device activations between 2013 and 2014. App installs on Christmas day were 150% higher than the average rate the prior week, yet this surge in new users did not translate into turnover among top-grossing apps.

The scope is narrow: one country (US), one platform (iPhone), one chart (Top Grossing), and one-year comparison. The methodology is a single visual comparison of chart positions rather than a statistical analysis, so the conclusion rests on observed rank persistence, supplemented by third-party holiday statistics.