Apple and Google continue to dominate the apps market while Microsoft and BlackBerry remain as "distant challengers," according to the latest figures from Canalys.
The first quarter of 2013 have shown the top four app stores helped bring in 13.4 billion downloads. As a result, $2.2 billion was earned due to paid app sales, in-app purchases, and subscriptions.
Of the top four app stores, Google and Apple both claim respective titles.
Apple's app store accounted for 74 percent of all revenue, an equivalent of $1.6 billion, however, Google Play garnered the most downloads with 51 percent, or 6.8 billion downloads.
Although Google has the title of most downloads, Apple was not far behind. The Cupertino-based company accounted for 40 percent of the app downloads, 11 percent down compared to Google. As for BlackBerry and Microsoft, both hold single-digit percentage shares.
Google is nowhere close to Apple's revenue percentage. According to Canalys, Google is "close to" 20 percent. BlackBerry and Microsoft are also in single-digit territory.
"Apple's App Store and Google Play remain the heavyweights in the app store world," said Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Shepherd, via TechCrunch. "In comparison, BlackBerry World and the Windows Phone Store remain distant challengers today, though they still should not be ignored."
Google and Apple's app dominance shows as well in mobile operating system market shares. Apple topped Google's Android with 61.41 percent in March figures. According to NetMarketShare, the number is an increase from February's 54.91 percent. In February, the Android mobile operating system accounted for 25.65 percent, however, the March figures show a small drop to 24.85 percent.
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