Mac App Store low on freebies, high on games

From CNET News.com: A new report released by market research group Distimo shows that Apple's now three-month old Mac App Store is off to a slower start than its iOS counterparts in terms of app volume, though is becoming a bellwether for more gaming opportunities on the Mac OS platform.

The report, which tracks data from the App Store on both iOS and on Mac OS, also evaluates Google's Android Market, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, Nokia Ovi, and Palm's App Catalog for the month of February.

According to Distimo, the Mac App Store reached 2,225 applications in two months, which was about a quarter of what the iPad had in app volume during the same time period. Even given the smaller pool of apps, the report found that developers who have their application in the Mac App Store's top 300 rankings generate "half the revenue of a top 300 iPad app on average."

Part of the reason for that centers on pricing. Just 12 percent of applications on the Mac App Store were free at the time of the report, leaving the rest in the paid category. That's compared to a split of 35 percent free and 65 percent paid of iPhone and iPod Touch apps, and a 29 percent free and 71 percent paid split for the iPad.

One very important tidbit about pricing is that the average price of the top 300 Mac App Store paid apps is much higher than their iPhone and iPad counterparts.

"The average selling price of the top 300 applications is seven times higher in the Mac App Store ($11.21) than on the iPhone ($1.57) and almost three times higher than on the iPad ($4.19)," Distimo said.

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