As the first cross mobile OS app store in Africa, BandwidthBlog was curious about the performance of the Vodacom app store since its launch on 1 September 2011. We pinged Vodacom for some insight and what we found was some very interesting stats:
Vodacom revealed that the app store offers about 140 000 apps and since its launch has generated over 800 000 downloads. This is an interesting stat as all apps were free to download upon its launch and as of December 2011 the paid apps library was launched. Predictably social networking apps are the most popular downloaded apps followed by games. Taking the top spot for most downloaded app is Facebook chat which is currently the most popular app download. In the local front, the most popular app is the K53 learner‘s app for first time drivers. Game apps such as Mario55 and Qeep are also performing well on the market.
As expected, the Blackberry Curve 8520 remains the leader in the top performing devices on the store as one of the most widely used devices in the South African market followed by the never say die Samsung E250.
As we previously covered results revealed that the South African personal finance app for Android, Expenza, listed on the Vodacom app store, quickly gathered more downloads in comparison to its listing in the Android Marketplace. This performance on the Vodacom app store indicates that users are excited about and receptive to a local carrier app and that there could be a bright future for carrier app stores.
The success of the Vodacom app store, paves the way for other service providers in Africa to enter into the app store market. We love the emerging trend of niche app stores, as the international app stores get bloated with millions of apps. App developers also love niche app stores as they find it increasingly difficult to get noticed in the big app stores.
