Major Iranian Android app distributor Cafe Bazaar, a copy of Google Play services, has released its second quarterly market review report (for the quarter ending Sep.) that provides developers and tech enthusiasts some insight into Iran’s expanding mobile services industry.
The number of users who have downloaded Cafe Bazaar is 36 million, 29 million of whom are actively using it. Since most Iranian Android phone users have the popular Bazaar app on their handsets, the data in the report can provide a general image of the Android app industry in Iran.
According to the report available on blog.cafebazaar.ir, 80% of Android phone users in Iran have cell-phones made by either Samsung or Huawei.
Samsung is the most popular with a 59.33% share of the market. The most popular Samsung handsets are Galaxy J7 with 9.9% share, followed by Galaxy J5 (9.35%), Galaxy J2 (4.85%), Galaxy J1 (4.13%), Galaxy A5 (3.26%), Galaxy A7 (1.82%), and Galaxy A3 (1.44%).
The second popular mobile phone brand in Iran is Huawei with a 22.6% share of the market. The top three popular Huawei handsets are Honor 4C (1.1%), G610 (1.09%), and P8 (1.68%).
Huawei is followed by LG with 4.15%, Sony (3.42%), Lenovo (2.64%), HTC (1.85%), and Xiaomi (0.74%). The remaining 4.34% is shared between Motorola, Asus, ZTE, and CAT.
> Android API Level
The report categorizes users based on their handsets’ Android Application Programming Interface (API) levels.
API is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications and basically specifies how software components should interact. Access to such information enables developers to write codes which are compatible with a wider range of gadgets employed by users.
The most common API Level installed on Cafe Bazaar users’ handsets was API Level 23 with 21%, followed by Level 19 (18%), 24 (17%) and 22 (16%).
During the quarter ending on Sep. 22, the number of applications categorized as video-streaming and Internet-based TV services observed a 19% increase compared to the previous quarter. The category was the fastest growing group in terms of the number of new apps introduced during the three months.
The report classifies users’ purchases in two categories: games and non-gaming applications. Most app purchases in the non-gaming category were made between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Games sold better between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.
According to the report, 33% of apps published on Cafe Bazaar offer cultural content, including educational material, religious-related multimedia services along with books and magazines.
Furthermore, 25% of the apps are games. Some 6% of the published games on Cafe Bazaar fall in the action category, followed by adventure (2%), puzzle (2%), sports (2%), driving (2%), strategy (1%), and word games (1%).
According to an earlier report by Bazaar, during the last Iranian year that ended in March, over 23,000 Android app developing teams across the country generated 1.8 trillion rials ($12.85 million) in revenues.
The report further puts direct and induced employment in the growing sector at 31,000.
During the past fiscal, the income of gaming apps showed a massive 94% year-on-year increase. The rest of the apps also saw a surge—64% compared to the year that ended in March 2017.
