App Installs on iOS and Android: Cross Platform Spillover
11 Pages Posted: 9 Apr 2016
Date Written: April 5, 2016
Abstract
There are two main platforms for mobile applications, Apple iOS and Android. Using data from 6 applications with hundreds of millions of users, we first show that the shocks that impact installs on one platform are correlated with the shocks on the other platform with an average correlation coefficient of 0.374. A simultaneous equations model to measure the impact of cross platform installs shows that Android adoption drives iOS adoption with average elasticity coefficient of 0.924. However, we find no evidence that iOS adoption has an impact on Android adoption. Several managerial implications for advertisers and application developers are discussed.
Keywords: mobile apps, cross platform, simultaneous equations model, seemingly unrelated regression
JEL Classification: C3, C32, M3, M31
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation