Apple’s App Store generated four times the revenue of Google Play in October 2012, but the smaller store is growing at an impressive rate, according to app analytics service App Annie.

The first App Annie Index report – which analyses the major revenue and download trends within the Apple and Google storefronts – found that monthly Google Play revenue has grown 311 percent between January 2012 and October 2012, while iOS revenue has only increased by 12.9 percent.

Indeed, while revenue for Google Play increased by 17.9 percent between September and October 2012, App Store revenue shrank by 0.7 percent – although it is worth noting that this was the period before the launch of the iPhone 5, which sparked a download boom.

When looking at free downloads, Google Play continued to lag behind iOS in terms of overall total, but saw a 48 percent monthly increase across the year-to-date, compared with 3.3 percent for iOS.

Geographic differences

Google Play saw strong growth in South Korea, with the market now ranking second to the US in terms of free downloads, with nearly twice as many downloads as Japan.

India is also becoming increasingly prominent, making it into third place with 6.2 percent of free downloads globally.

Bertrand Schmitt, App Annie CEO, said the arrival of low-cost Android devices in India is turning it into a “download superpower” – although monetisation remains a challenge.

The picture is slightly different with iOS, where China is catching the US in terms of download volume. At the start of 2012, the US accounted for 33 percent of all iOS downloads. In October this stood at 25.8 percent with China on 15.3 percent.

In terms of revenue generation, App Annie believes that Japan overtook the US as the largest source of revenue for Google Play in October 2012, the first time the latter has been outranked. Since the beginning of the year, Google Play revenue from Japan has multiplied by a factor of more than 10, while US revenue has doubled.

The average revenue per user for Google Play in Japan is significantly higher than in other countries. However, download volumes are only a quarter of the US.

Schmitt said this development represents “a major tectonic shift in the international app store economy”, and something that publishers will want to exploit.

iOS app revenue in Japan remains significantly behind the US, but is catching up each month. iOS revenue from Japan contributes 14.4 percent of the global total compared to 32.7 percent for the US.

Developers tightening focus

Another trend identified by App Annie was that several publishers on iOS and Google Play are now generating more revenue from a small number of titles than large publishers are with a portfolio of titles.

For example, Supercell ranks second only to EA in terms of generating revenue on iOS despite only offering two apps. Korean game publishers WeMade Entertainment and NextFloor are having similar success on Google Play.

The figures suggest there are two routes to becoming a successful global app store: distribute a large quantity of apps, or focus on a smaller number of high-quality apps.

US, Japanese and Korean game makers dominate the revenue charts for iOS and Google Play. Eight of the top 10 grossing titles on iOS are from Japan or the US, while the same proportion are from Japan and South Korea in Google Play – perhaps as a result of Google’s strong performance in these markets.