With the App Store for iPad having hit 180,000 dedicated apps in roughly the same time as both the store for iPhone and Google Play, Distimo's latest numbers seem to point towards a marketplace in transition.
China, it's reported, has now overtaken the United States as the biggest market for free apps for the tablet.
The number of daily downloads for the top 300 free apps on the platform hitting 1.1 million in the country during February.
That eases China ahead of the US on 1 million, with the figure also helping Asia to become the most important region for free downloads on iPad.
Locally speaking
This, naturally, will have a major impact on developers' localisation strategies, with the market as a whole increasingly shifting east according to Distimo's take.
"It remains to be seen whether China will stay the largest market, when we anticipate that the download volumes in the US will recover next month," details Distimo in its latest report.
"However, regardless of whether or not China will be the number one country, developers of free applications without a single-country-strategy should make China part of their strategy."
Nevertheless, Distimo reports the US remains the highest grossing region for iPad apps an area where China doesn't even make the top five.
In-app happy
Distimo concludes other countries perfect for in-app strategies according to are the UK, Australia and Canada.
As a whole, ten percent of all apps on the App Store for iPad feature in-app purchases. That's a higher rate than the six percent seen on iPhone and 2 percent monitored on Google Play.
Strip that figure back to the top 200 grossing apps for the tablet, and 74 percent of apps feature in-app purchases. That's just behind iPhone on 80 percent, but well ahead of Android on 56 percent.
"This means that, regardless of the proportion of applications that feature in-app purchases, the model is adopted by the majority of the top grossing applications in each store," concludes Distimo.
Distimo's report in full can be downloaded from the firm's website.
Data & Research
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.
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