Developers Earned $5.4bn from Apple and Google in 2011

The total revenue paid to app developers by Apple and Google in 2011 was $5.4bn (£3.5bn), slightly more than the GDP of Guinea or Liechtenstein, according to statistics from Flurry. The company forecasts the figure to rise by over 60 per cent to $8.7bn in 2012.

The figures reveal that in-app advertising accounted for $980m, or 18 per cent of revenues in 2011. This figure is forecast to increase by more than 100 per cent to $2bn in 2012, equating to 23 per cent of total 2012 revenues.

The research also highlights the fact that the dominance of the top apps is on the wane. In the Top 25 ranked titles on iOS and Android accounted for 28 per cent of revenues, but Flurry estimates that this figure will fall to just 15 per cent in 2012. The proportion of revenues generated by the rest of the Top 100 apps is forecast to fall from 27 per cent in 2010, to 17 per cent in 2012.