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"Apps are now a multi-billion dollar industry, but the market is largely dominated by just a couple of dozen developers, most of which are big companies.\nHalf of the revenue generated from Google Play and Apple's App Store in the U.S. went to just 25 developers, according to a new estimate from Canalys based on an analysis of paid downloads and in-app purchases from the two app stores during the first 20 days of November.\nAll but one of the 25 developers were gaming companies, including Zynga, Electronic Arts, Disney and, of course, Rovio, which isn't too surprising given how many app titles each of these companies offer. The lone exception among the top 25 was Pandora.\nThis estimate is just the latest indication that independent developers are far from guaranteed to profit off the app gold rush.\nOne survey from earlier this year found the majority of app developers (59%) don't make enough money to recoup the money spent on making the app. Likewise, an analysis from AdEven in July found that nearly two-thirds of apps have never been downloaded.\n\"Discoverability is a particular issue in the Apple App Store and in Google Play given the huge inventories they boast,\" said Canalys Senior Analyst Tim Shepherd, in a statement. \"With top game developers\u2019 content so prevalent in the stores, it can be hard for other good quality apps to get the attention they deserve.\"\nThere's little doubt that overall app revenue will only continue to grow in the coming years \u2014 with ABI Research predicting that global app revenue will top $30 billion by the end of this year \u2014 but it looks like it will be difficult for new and independent developers to get a piece of that.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, Cristiano Betta.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/12/05/app-store-revenue-developers/>