A new App Store study paid for by Facebook says that Apple and Google's own default apps dominate key categories, making it harder for third-party dev

Facebook-backed study claims default apps dominate on iPhone, Android

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2021-07-07 15:00:08

A new App Store study paid for by Facebook says that Apple and Google's own default apps dominate key categories, making it harder for third-party developers to compete.

Following its sponsoring of research to lambast App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14, Facebook has now paid for a separate examination of the App Store. This one claims that of the top 20 most-used iPhone apps, Apple makes 15.

"[The study shows] the impact of preinstalled apps on the competitive app ecosystem," Joe Osborne, Comscore spokesperson said to The Verge.

Significantly, however, neither Apple nor Google publish usage data for their apps. As a result, Comscore's calculations are reportedly primarily based on a survey that is said to have asked around 4,000 users which apps they used.

The full report has not yet been released, and the only further detail about the survey is that respondents were asked during the month of November 2020. There is no breakdown of what proportion of users use iOS or Android, nor any demographic detail about the respondents.