More Apple statistics
My most recent iPhone post crunched some numbers to show that the iPhone is still only a small part of the mobile gaming market, and that perhaps some of the hype is overblown.
Others disagreed. Tim Harrison argued that the influence of the iPhone goes far beyond the raw numbers, and its real contribution is that it has kick-started the moribund mobile content sector which was in imminent danger of dying from apathy.
Pocketgamer concurred, but also added that I neglected to include the iPod Touch. That’s a very valid point – Apple’s latest figures suggest that there are three iPod Touches sold for every four iPhones, which near as dammit doubles the installed base.
Apple’s recent second quarter financial results gave some additional statistics:
- 1 billion Apps downloaded from the AppStore
- iPhone now available in 81 countries
- iPhone has sold 21 million units globally
- 16 million iPod Touches globally
So an installed base of 37 million units. The average iPhone user has downloaded 27 Apps (although many of these are probably free).
We are still some way from having useful business-planning statistics from Apple for paid-for iPhone/iPod Touch games, but we are slowly piecing together the picture.
