In the early years of mobile apps,  paid apps generated more revenue for many developers, but over the years we have see a shift. According to data from Distimo, in-app purchases (usually from free apps), are now steering the revenue charge.

Distimo data looks at revenue from the app stores and finds that almost 98 percent of Google Play revenue and 92 percent of Apple App Store revenue that were created from in-app purchases were made from within free apps (November 2013). As recently as the beginning of 2013, both Google’s and Apple’s stores were seeing around 10 percent less revenue from in-app purchases each. Additionally, eMarketer suggests that just over 40 percent of all app revenues will came from in-app purchases in 2013 and that the share will grow to 47.5 percent by 2017.

Over 62 percent of the US population now owns a smartphone with the most logged on to web site being the Google sites at 88 percent reach, followed by Facebook at 84 percent reach. Broken down, comScore reports that as a manufacturer Apple leads the way with a 40 percent OEM marketshare, while Google/Android holds 52 percent of the platform marketplace. Regarding mobile apps, Facebook’s mobile app comes in first, reaching 75 percent of the marketplace.