Rise of the planet of the apps: A systematic study of the mobile app ecosystem (original) (raw)

A Longitudinal Study of Google Play

The difficulty of large scale monitoring of app markets affects our understanding of their dynamics. This is particularly true for dimensions such as app update frequency, control and pricing, the impact of developer actions on app popularity, as well as coveted membership in top app lists. In this paper we perform a detailed temporal analysis on two datasets we have collected from the Google Play Store, one consisting of 160,000 apps and the other of 87,223 newly released apps. We have monitored and collected data about these apps over more than 6 months. Our results show that a high number of these apps have not been updated over the monitoring interval. Moreover, these apps are controlled by a few developers that dominate the total number of app downloads. We observe that infrequently updated apps significantly impact the median app price. However, a changing app price does not correlate with the download count. Furthermore, we show that apps that attain higher ranks have better stability in top app lists. We show that app market analytics can help detect emerging threat vectors, and identify search rank fraud and even malware. Further, we discuss the research implications of app market analytics on improving developer and user experiences.

Success within App Distribution Platforms: The Contribution of App Diversity and App Cohesivity

As the plethora of mobile apps continues to grow, app publishers are increasingly challenged on the appropriate strategies to adopt in order to improve app success. In this report, we adopt theoretical lens from transaction cost theory and economic utility in the development and test of a model that examines the impacts of app diversity and app cohesivity on app success. Using data gathered from the Microsoft Windows Phone App distribution platform, our main conclusions are as follows: app diversity (the number of geographic locales an app is built to support) is of particular significance as a potential driver of app success within platforms and app cohesivity (a measure of integration with the platforms services) is positively associated with app success (its download count/rank within the platform). Interestingly, both relationships appear to be moderated by the pricing scheme adopted by publishers for that app. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as avenues for future research work.