The first Comscore study to rank the popularity of pre-installed iOS and Android alongside third-party apps suggests that the most popular apps are the pre-installed ones. The results show that on iOS, apps like Weather, Calculator, and Clock are more popular than YouTube, Facebook, and Amazon. The statistics are similar for Android, where pre-installed Google apps dominate the rankings.
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According to the findings, 75% of the top 20 apps on iOS in the U.S. were made by Apple, while Google made 60% of the top apps on Android devices. The top four apps on both platforms were created by their respective parent companies.
The study reveals a number of quirks, including the fact that Apple's Calculator app has more users than Gmail on Android. Facebook is the only third-party developer with more than one app on the iOS app list and the only developer with three apps on the Android list.
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Comscore took data from apps and websites last December to conduct the study, along with information from a survey of 4,000 people asked about the default apps they used in November 2020. The study excluded browsers from the rankings as well as digital assistants.
Facebook said it paid for the Comscore study to show the “impact of pre-installed apps on the competitive app ecosystem,” hinting at the seemingly anti-competitive nature of Android and iOS. Facebook is at odds with Apple, criticizing the company’s restrictions on third-party developers, privacy measures like App Tracking Transparency, the inability to choose Messenger as the default on the iPhone, and more.
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The report suggests that some app categories that already have a pre-installed app, like Weather, are struggling to compete with other third-party apps. However, it’s worth noting that the default apps don’t win in every category. For example, Apple Maps and Apple Music don’t appear in the rankings at all.
An Apple spokesperson criticized the report's methodology and said the results contradicted Comscore's recent April 2021 rankings on app usage, even though those previous rankings excluded pre-installed apps.
