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Distimo: 80% of Android paid apps downloaded fewer than 100 times

May 27, 2011 — 9:40am ET | By Jason Ankeny

There are now over 200,000 applications in Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Market, but consumers virtually are ignoring half of them--according to new data published by app marketplace analytics firm Distimo, 80 percent of all premium Android Market apps and 20 percent of free apps have been downloaded fewer than 100 times worldwide.

"It is more challenging for developers in the Google Android Market than in the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store to monetize using a one-off fee monetization model," writes Distimo data analyst Hendrik Koekkoek on the firm's blog. "We found that only two paid applications have been downloaded more than half a million times in the Google Android Market worldwide to date, while six paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPhone generate the same number of downloads within a two-month timeframe in the United States alone."

Distimo notes that 96 Android Market applications exceed the 5 million download milestone, with only one--Google Maps--surpassing 50 million installs. Five Android Market games top 250,000 worldwide downloads--by contrast, there are ten iOS games in the App Store that generated more than 250,000 downloads in the U.S. alone in two months. Distimo adds that the refresh rate of top application charts is significantly higher on iOS than on Android: In April 2011, there were 94 distinct applications (free or paid) to land a Top 10 download position in the App Store, compared to only 26 in Android Market.

Last month, Distimo reported that Android Market now offers more free mobile applications than the App Store, touting over 134,000 free apps compared to almost 122,000 free selections in the Apple storefront. Distimo adds that at its current rate of growth Android Market is expected to offer more total mobile applications than any other store as soon as this autumn, followed in descending order by the App Store, Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone Marketplace, Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) BlackBerry App World and Nokia's (NYSE:NOK) Ovi Store.

For more:
- read this Distimo Blog entry