Weather category apps are the most profitable in Android Market

Just by choosing the less competitive and more price-intensive category, developers can lift their potential revenue by 900% above average.

These finding are part of our latest free monthly “Android Market Insights”. Download it here.

At the end of August 2011 the average application had generated nearly $2,500 since it has been published. The total average cumulative revenue from paid downloads varied from $300 to $21,000 per category.

 

Although nearly a quarter of all apps downloaded on Android Market are games, the monetization potential of these apps is rather mediocre. Intense competition significantly reduces the potential revenue. Unsurprisingly, the smallest category of Weather apps has generated by far the highest average revenue per app in the store.

However the use-case of the app is very specific and it is very difficult for developers to make yet-another great weather app. Therefore the Business category could be an optimal choice for developers. It currently contains 7,000 apps and only 13% of them are paid; while users do not mind paying a price for another good tool.

Many categories though have very low average revenue, because users either prefer to download free alternatives, or they just would not pay more than a dollar for another ringtone or wallpaper.

More details on category monetization and Android Market’s key metrics overview in the new volume of research2guidance’s free “Android Market Insights”.

  1. Does the report include the In-app feature available even in some free applications?

    Don’t forget that advertising is an important source of revenue for some developers and it could make free software (ad-supported LITE versions) an interesting option.