Mobile app marketing platform Fiksu tracked a significant decline in iPhone app downloads in February as last year’s holiday season surge calmed down.
The firm’s App Store Competitive Index measures the aggregate daily volume of the top 200 free US iPhone downloads. During the month of February, the index saw 5.2 million daily downloads, compared to 6.01 million in January.
App marketing costs also fell during February, as Fiksu’s Cost per Loyal User Index, which measures publishers’ acquisition costs for users that open the app three times or more, dropped 17 percent to $1.29 from $1.56 the month prior.
“On the heels of a record-shattering holiday season, February presented a more consistent ‘normalized’ and valuable landscape for mobile app marketers,” Fiksu CEO Micah Adler said.
App download volumes had been at unusually high levels during the past few months as Apple released several new devices last fall. Adler went on to note that publishers and marketers can expect February’s numbers to be the “new normal” this year.
March should register as another normal month for the App Store, though April could see things pick up, as rumors have suggested that Apple is gearing up to release new iPads as soon as next month.
Apple’s app ecosystem saw massive growth last year, with 20 billion of the App Store’s 40 billion downloads coming in 2012 alone. The company has revealed that the platform saw 2 billion app downloads last December. By comparison, the Google Play store topped 25 billion total downloads last fall.
Fiksu’s report suggest that app download volumes on the App Store in January were even higher than the month prior, while February’s numbers fell slightly below December 2012 levels. If Apple’s “new normal” is just under 2 billion monthly downloads, things are looking pretty good for the company.
Top Image Credit: Cristiano Betta / Flickr
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