In Q4 2017, iOS customer spending was US$11.5 billion, which is 95% more than what Android users spent on Google Play. This is out of a report by AppAnnie, which said although Google Play serves 145% more apps globally, it falls behind in terms of sales.
Downloads vs. Sales
New app downloads in both app stores were close to 27 billion. Google Play had 19 billion and the App Store had roughly 8 billion. The rate of app downloads grew 7% over the previous year.
But revenue from these online stores grew even faster: 20% over the previous year. Apple had US$11.5 billion and Google represented the remaining US$5 billion.
Android has a high rate of app piracy, with knowledgeable users downloading APKs from various places online. This means that app developers are more likely to release their apps to iOS first, or even exclusively to the App Store.
AppAnnie also found that Netflix was the top grossing app by customer spend.
Is it part of the journalist responsibility, to note this World Wide Spending view for Google Play does not include China?
Or do they generally expect reader to know?
For comperison Canada spent half of that amount on Cannabus all last year.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/marijuana-industry-1.4503152