In this paper, we focus on a specific strategy that app developers may use to stimulate demand: the release of updates. We develop a stylised model and then we test it by using an unbalanced panel with the top 1,000 apps on iTunes and Google Play stores for five European countries. We show that while in iTunes updates increase the rate of growth of downloads, in Google Play their effect is not significant. This result, consistent with the predictions of the model, suggests that the lack of quality control by Google Play can lead to an excess of updating. We also find that the past performance of the app influences the decision to release an update but only in iTunes. This finding is in line with our model and can again be interpreted on the basis of the different way of governing the release of updates in the two stores.
Updates Management in Mobile Applications. iTunes vs Google Play
MANENTI, FABIO;
2015
Abstract
In this paper, we focus on a specific strategy that app developers may use to stimulate demand: the release of updates. We develop a stylised model and then we test it by using an unbalanced panel with the top 1,000 apps on iTunes and Google Play stores for five European countries. We show that while in iTunes updates increase the rate of growth of downloads, in Google Play their effect is not significant. This result, consistent with the predictions of the model, suggests that the lack of quality control by Google Play can lead to an excess of updating. We also find that the past performance of the app influences the decision to release an update but only in iTunes. This finding is in line with our model and can again be interpreted on the basis of the different way of governing the release of updates in the two stores.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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