BlackBerry apps four times as pricey as iPhone, Android software
BlackBerry users pay more for their apps. Lots more. That’s the finding of a new report from Skyhook Wireless, maker of location-based service software. Skyhook’s study found that BlackBerry apps average around $12 each, compared to the popular $2.99 price for an iPhone app and Android apps that average less than a dollar. Most Android apps are completely free.
Skyhook’s study also confirmed the conventional wisdom that users are cycling through apps, buying new ones and abandoning last month’s downloads. ”App usage drops off considerably after the first 14 days of use,” says the report.
Besides price, Skyhook found other major differences among the three most prominent app stores:
- Blackberry App World offers the most expensive and least varied apps.
- Apple sells inexpensive apps across an array of different types.
- Android sits somewhere in the middle, with mostly free apps in a growing variety of categories.
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About the Author, Paul Boutin
Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.