The number of App Store apps has dropped for the first time, and there are many junk apps that need to be cleaned up

According to a report recently released by data analysis platform Appfigures, the number of apps on Apple's App Store dropped dramatically in 2017. To be precise, the total number of apps on the App Store suddenly dropped by 5% in one year.

Appfigures statistics show that throughout 2017, the number of apps in Apple's App Store was 2.2 million at the beginning of the year, but it dropped to 2.1 million at the end of the year. In contrast, the number of Android apps in the Google Play Store increased by 3.6 million during the same period, a year-on-year increase of 30%. The report said that since 2014, the development trajectory of Apple's App Store and Google Play has been similar, but it changed in 2017.

The reason for the apparent decline in the number of App Store apps is unclear. Appfigures speculates that it may be because Apple has become more stringent in reviewing apps listed on the App Store. In addition, iOS 11's abandonment of support for 32-bit apps is also a reason for the decline. Currently, 32-bit apps are not found on iOS 11 devices. At the same time, Apple has required all apps to be updated based on the 64-bit architecture since 2015.

In addition, Apple has been cleaning up the App Store since September 2016, removing "abandoned," "outdated," and "problematic" apps, a process that may continue into 2017. In a statement posted on the Apple Developer Portal, Apple said this was part of a plan to guarantee "high-quality apps" to users, because a large number of these removed apps are no longer updated or no longer meet current review standards. Not only that, virus scanning apps and cloned apps, as well as apps generated directly from commercial templates, were also cleaned up.

From the current situation, it seems that it is precisely because of the stricter app store supervision measures that the number of new app releases on the App Store has dropped by 29%. In the whole of 2017, iOS developers released only 755,000 new apps, which is the largest decline since the launch of the App Store in 2008. In contrast, the number of new Android apps released on the Google Play Store reached 1.5 million, an increase of 17% year-on-year.

In addition to fewer apps being released, Appfigures' report also shows that more developers are porting iOS apps to Android than the latter to the former. Throughout 2017, developers ported about 17,500 iOS apps to Android, while only 7,500 were ported from Android to iOS. Currently, there are about 450,000 identical apps in the App Store and Google Play, accounting for about 8.5% of the total.

***, Appfigures' report also details the installed base of application development tools in each country. Among them, the growth of Chinese developers in the Top Application category is amazing. And as expected, games are among the top on both the App Store and Google Play platforms.