Despite the recent intrusion of Android into iPhone's market share, Apple's App Store remains the primary choice for studios looking to maximise revenue generated by their titles.
That's according to the findings of a report published by Nielsen titled The State of Mobile Apps designed to look into both app take up, and the viability of each platform for developers.
The report's findings claim US based iOS users download almost twice as many apps from Apple's marketplace as those with Android or BlackBerry handsets, with paid apps also riding high.
Indeed, Nielsen states that, for every two free apps downloaded from the App Store, one paid app is also purchased.
The figures pale in comparison for Apple's nearest competitors.
Pay to play
While iOS has a free-to-paid app conversion rate of 43 percent according to figures taken across a 30 day period in August Android's rate comes in at 34 percent and BlackBerry's 21 percent.
BlackBerry's figure actually represents a fall from a survey carried out by Nielsen back in December, when the OS had a conversion rate of 28 percent.
In Nielsen's view, consumer preference for apps on certain marketplaces owes a lot to the way they're asked to pay for them credit card billing and phone bills preferred, in general, to alternatives such as PayPal.
Ad advantage
Apple doesn't lead the pack in all areas, however.
Despite the hype surrounding iAd, Android has the edge when it comes to consumer confidence in advertising, with users of Google's OS the most likely to click on in-app ads 33 percent of respondents in all.
In comparison, iOS owners are more likely to avoid them, with only 26 percent giving them a second look.
Again, BlackBerry is far behind all of its rivals on this particular score, with 15 percent of users clicking on in-app ads.
In general though, smartphones are set for fruitful times. Nielsen claims 1 in 4 US citizens current own a smartphone handset, with that figure set to double by the end of 2011.
You can register to review the report in full for free on Nielsen's US website.
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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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