China is now the world’s leader in iOS downloads after surpassing the U.S. and is pulling in a 90-percent growth between the first quarter of 2014 and 2015, San Francisco-based mobile analytics company App Annie announced.
The company's senior vice president, Danielle Levitas, announced the news during the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) in Beijing on April 29, Wednesday.
From the said period, the U.S. has only incurred a total of 30-percent growth, while Japan posted 50. For Apple, download growth translates to revenue gains for the tech giant's app store unit.
"China grew more quickly to narrow that gap," Levitas shared.
Apple has recently released its earnings report, stating that international sales contributed around 69 percent to the company's revenue for this year's first quarter. The figure mirrors high demands for Apple devices in emerging markets such as China.
App Annie also revealed that Apple has intensely expanded distribution in the country. Currently, China has 19 Apple stores located in 10 cities, up from eight in Oct. 2013.
"China, a mobile-first country, has seen smartphone exceed PC adoption. Chinese consumers want large-screen smartphones with longer battery life," Levitas said.
China is regarded as the global leader in Internet and cell phone users. An official data stated that there are 649 million Internet users by the end of 2014 and 557 million have used cell phones to browse the Internet.
Levitas furthermore highlighted that Apple's iOS app rival, Android's Google Play, took the lead in terms of app downloads, edging over 70 percent in this year's first quarter. Meanwhile, iOS has still maintained a strong monetization lead.
"Emerging markets like Mexico, Turkey, Brazil and Indonesia were the primary drive of Google Play's growth," she enthused.
The App Annie executive also announced a forecast that this strong growth will continue in emerging markets.