HIGHLIGHTS
- Spotify has 1.6 times the popularity of Apple Music.
- Google Maps is 1.5 times more popular than Apple Maps.
- Netflix has a 17-fold higher market share than Apple's offering.
In order to respond to criticism of its competitive practices from the European Union, developers, and US lawmakers, Apple pointed to a report that showed third-party apps are thriving on the iPhone and other devices.
Analysts said in a study published by Analysis Group and promoted by Apple that Apple's own apps are rarely the dominant option and account for a small share of app usage.
"We discovered that, while many people use Apple's own applications, they are seldom the most popular of a given category and are overtaken in popularity by third-party apps for virtually every nation and app type we evaluated," according to the paper.
According to the survey, Spotify is 1.6 times more popular than Apple Music in the United States, Google Maps is 1.5 times more popular than Apple Maps, and Netflix is 17 times more popular than Apple's service. Meanwhile, Amazon's Kindle service was 4.5 times more popular than Apple's Books app.
The European Union is investigating Apple and is working on legislation that would require the corporation to enable apps to be installed from sources other than the App Store. Such a move would put Apple's hold on its platform in jeopardy and potentially hamper its ability to collect developer commissions.
US senators have also advocated for the tactic, known as sideloading, to be legalized. Sideloading, according to Apple, poses privacy and security issues to users. The move on Thursday was an attempt to demonstrate that app developers are functioning OK without a change. It was also an uncommon attempt by Apple to minimize the success of its own services, which now produce more than $60 billion (approximately Rs. 4,54,980 crore) for the Cupertino, California-based corporation each year. According to the survey, Apple's music, TV, books, and navigation services are the dominating player in a few key locations.
"In the United States, iPhone users spend more than 50% more time on Spotify than on Apple Music," according to the survey.
The researchers also discovered a wide range of alternative apps in main categories. Third-party communication applications like LINE, WeChat, and KakaoTalk, for example, are popular on the iPhone in Asia.
