Distimo has said that the proportion of app downloads that are free could exceed the 89 percent recently suggested by analyst firm Gartner.

In the US, where the majority of downloads are made, Distimo found that the volume of downloads in the top 300 free apps in Apple’s App Store for iPhone was 15 times that of the top 300 paid downloads in July 2012, equivalent to 94 percent of all apps. When extended to the top 10,000 apps, the volume of free apps rose to 19 times that of paid apps.

An even greater difference was seen in Google Play in the US, with the top 300 free apps being downloaded 82 times more than the top 300 paid apps – the equivalent to 99 percent of all downloads.

For Apple’s App Store in China, the ratio of free to paid app downloads was found to be greater than 100.

As well as suggesting that the proportion of free downloads compared to paid downloads is higher than Gartner’s figure, Distimo predicts that the difference will increase further as paid apps are further challenged by the in-app purchase revenue model.