Handango Releases Mobile Software Sales Stats

Posted By: Ryan Tuesday, November 5, 2002 11:02:27 AM

Handango, the leading publisher of mobile software, released the second Handango Yardstick, a quarterly report on the state of the mobile software economy. Aggregating data from more than 100 sales sources, Handango has compiled the industry's definitive source for statistics and information for the mobile software market.

In the third quarter, the market for mobile software remained strong with the average buyer adding 1.84 applications to his/her handset, up slightly from Q2. The average application price fell slightly to $19.16 USD, due to increasing sales of lower priced applications for phones. The number of companies developing mobile software and the number of new applications continued to grow at a tremendous pace with more than 800 firms entering the market with 3,800 applications.

Stats "The mobile software market continues to grow and evolve through the expanding base of device choices and device users," said Kevin Burden, IDC program manager, smart handheld devices. "With new color handsets and the growing variety of converged smart handheld devices continuing to enter the market, it is clear that there will be more users taking advantage of the stock of available mobile applications in 2003."

For this quarter, the Handango Yardstick highlights personal productivity. This category of applications was tops in sales in Q2 and tied with the games category in Q3 with 22 percent of sales. The development tools and entertainment categories followed closely behind at 14 percent and 13 percent of sales respectively.

The Handango Yardstick also reports data from surveys sent to more than 11,000 repeat software buyers. Most notably, the responses reveal that 81.9 percent of repeat software buyers have added more than six applications to their current handsets. In addition, out of more than 20 criteria, the number of applications purchased was the most influential factor among survey respondents in determining brand loyalty for a particular handset.

Some of the more interesting figures from the Yardstick (PDF) are:

Market Metrics:

Avg. number of applications purchased: 1.84 (+.14 Q/Q)
Avg. selling price of mobile applications: $19.16 (-.89 Q/Q)
Number of new mobile software vendors: 803 (+2 Q/Q)
Number of new mobile applications: 3800 (+478 Q/Q)

Top 5 devices adding software:

HP iPAQ 3000 series - 13.82%
Sony CLIÉ series - 9.06%
Palm m500 series - 8.95%
Palm m100 series - 6.62%
Handspring Visor series - 5.15%

Top 3 Palm OS Software:

DateBk5 (PIM enhancement) - $24.95
SplashWallet Suite (suite of productivity apps) - $39.95
Documents To Go Premium (office suite) - $69.95

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A question about the stats

palmist @ 11/5/2002 12:00:55 PM #

What is the breakdown of handheld sales by OS?

These surveys always seem to emphasize the sales of the iPAQ, as if that is the most important measure of the state of the OS wars. What's the stat on sales by OS -- Palm, Linux, WinCE?

RE: A question about the stats

Admin @ 11/5/2002 12:10:07 PM #

There are more stats in the full PDF report:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?J11752A52

IPaq

Quickster @ 11/5/2002 12:14:09 PM #

The reason more software is sold for the IPaq is because it comes with such a poor selection of software. Users would probably replace the OS if they only could.

RE: IPaq

Galapagos @ 11/5/2002 12:23:33 PM #

As a matter of fact you can replace the operating system of the iPAQ with a version of Linux. Unfortunately you void warranty and can have troubles restoring WinCE (Pocket PC) onto the machine again.

As an aside:
The most interesting thing about the statistics is that the Palm-devices (produced by Palm,Inc.) are listed by series thus distorting the numbers. If you would list the number of programs sold to CLIÉ-Owners by model (eg. PEG-N770c, PEG-T665, PEG-NR70 etc.) or by iPAQ-Models (3600, 3800, 3900) the Palm would be the winner.

I am sure most software sells to PalmOS, but Pocket PC-Software brings in the highest numbers because it is more expensive (high development costs anyone?). On the other hand on could criticize that PalmOS-Devices need a comercial software package for taks beyond PIM (Browser, a useful picture viewer, movie players, for some PalmOS-devices Office-software, E-Mail-Clients that can handle attachements etc.)

RE: IPaq

EdH @ 11/5/2002 1:08:21 PM #

>The reason more software is sold for the IPaq is because it comes with such a poor selection of software. Users would probably replace the OS if they only could.

Wait - I thought that was why the PalmOS had over 10,000 apps written for it was because of the poor selection on the Palm.

Or it could be that the iPAQ is a great platform for hundreds of things beyond pH testers, solitaire and calculators.

RE: IPaq

Foo Fighter @ 11/5/2002 1:15:44 PM #

I've always felt that this break down in sales has more to do with income brackets than anything else. People who buy iPaqs are typically upper-middle class or better, since they can afford such expensive gadgets. Folks who buy Zires, M100s, Clies (except for high-end models) tend to be lower-middle class or lower, since they can't afford anything better. More income = more spending money. Simple economics.

"it's better to be a pirate than join the navy." - Steve Jobs

To be honest...

Solo @ 11/5/2002 2:23:47 PM #

I think you should add the sales of PilotGear to the one of Handango and THEN split them per OS. I am not sure IPAQ would then come out a so clear winner.

Just think at the value of the sale of CESINC (Quick Office) when it got sold two months ago.

Solo

RE: IPaq

Foo Fighter @ 11/5/2002 4:34:44 PM #

> "I think you should add the sales of PilotGear to the one of Handango and THEN split them per OS. I am not sure IPAQ would then come out a so clear winner."

If you are referring to PalmGear, then no you can't add them to this comparison. PalmGear doesn't sell Pocket PC software yet (that's coming in the future though). That's the whole point of Handango's sales figures. They reflect sales of BOTH platforms, not just PalmOS.

"it's better to be a pirate than join the navy." - Steve Jobs

RE: IPaq

Solo @ 11/5/2002 5:55:58 PM #

Yes, but if it wasn't for Pilotgear, I would buy a lot more software at Handango (because I wouldn't have any other choice) and then increasing the Palm OS share.

Get my point ??

Solo

RE: IPaq

treo007 @ 11/5/2002 6:26:05 PM #

Isn't there an equivalent (or at least there used to be) to Palm Gear on the PPC side? It's Pocket Gear or something like that?

RE: IPaq

Foo Fighter @ 11/6/2002 12:26:49 AM #

Galapagos said: "...but Pocket PC-Software brings in the highest numbers because it is more expensive (high development costs anyone?).

Uh, how can Pocket PC have higher development costs than PalmOS? The development tools for PPC are free.

"it's better to be a pirate than join the navy." - Steve Jobs

Complexity = Higher Costs

Galapagos @ 11/6/2002 12:58:33 AM #

I'd say this is due to the complexity of Pocket PC-Software. There are Playstation-style games and relatively high level grafics manipulation programs for Pocket PC. While most PalmOS-Software (EXCEPT for Docs-to-Go, QuickOffice, SnapperMail, Deity/Masterthief etc.) are comparatively less complex.

The more complex a piece of software is, the longer it takes to develope and test, so it is more expensive to produce.

RE: IPaq

Fly-By-Night @ 11/6/2002 4:57:41 AM #

Add to that all the time needed for debugging and wondering why your app crashes when you change the time, or font in another application, or....

FBN

RE: IPaq

JonathanChoo @ 11/6/2002 5:45:31 AM #

Yes, I own a PPC and I can confirm that that is what I did. Although I did not buy any softwares, many PPC users have to buy their softwares since not many are freewares. Also they have to get a task manager the first thing the get their PDA to close those 'multi-tasking' programs. The Pocket Word and Pocket Excel programs has less (I repeat LESS) functions than even Documents to Go for eh hem...PalmOS. Replacements launchers, some rilly cool games (I admit PPC still have the coolest games - Soccer Addict and Tennis Addict not to mention Tomb Raider, Quake, Quake II and Argentum), but I think it all comes down to Palm users usually get their softwares from somewhere else. Mostly bundled (I know ipaq comes with loads of programs), PalmGear, PalmBlvd and Freeware Palm. PPC has a dedicated freeware website but its load of crap.

Having said that I think PalmSource should watch out for a .Net PPC. If it's optimised for X-Scale, it could be fast. The real battel is OS6 Vs .Net PPC

Current PDAs: Palm Tungsten T, Toshiba e310

Past PDAs: Palm V, Palm m505, Palm m515, Sony Clie N770C/U, Sony Clie T625C, Sony Clie NR70V