Google Play slowly catching up to Apple's App Store revenue

The latest report from mobile analytics company App Annie suggests that, while Google Play continues to outpace the iOS App Store when it comes to downloads, the latter is still generating much more revenue for developers -- but that revenue gap is closing. According to the report, Apple's iOS App Store continues to dominate the competition in terms of profit potential, generating roughly 85 percent more revenue in the first quarter of 2014 than Google's Play Store. However, that's an improvement from last November, when App Annie reported that Google Play brought in less than half the revenue of Apple's App Store. The report also claims that Google's Play Store hosts roughly 45 percent more downloads worldwide than the iOS App Store. That's almost double the Play Store's 25 percent download lead that App Annie reported last November, suggesting that downloads from Google Play continue to grow at a rapid pace. App Annie attributes that growth to Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey, where rapid Android device adoption has had a meaningful impact on Google Play downloads. Within Apple's ecosystem, China proved to be the most important growth market -- App Annie representatives claim that iOS App Store revenue increased roughly 70 percent quarter-over-quarter in China. The lion's share of downloads and revenue across both stores continues to be generated by games.