Google Inc. (GOOG) App Revenue Gains on Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has seen great success with its Android operating system in the smartphone market, as the most recent reports show that Android smartphones dictate about 70 percent of the overall market, blowing away iOS by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Despite that stranglehold on the market in general, Apple has had dominance in the app download market. But in a recent report by a market research firm, it seems that Google is finally gaining some ground in app downloads – even if it still has a long way to go to catch Apple.

In a survey by market analysis firm App Annie, Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has seen as 700 percent increase in growth in its Google Play store for Android just during the 2012 calendar year. The revenue doubled just in the fourth quarter of the year, keyed mainly by activity in Japan and South Korea, which alone accounted for nearly half of the revenue in the quarter. Japan is he leader in Google Play revenue, with the U.S. second and South Korea third. Overall, Strategy Analytics reported that Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has established a dominant market share in smartphones, with its Android OS growing from 51 percent of the market at the end of 2011 to 70 percent at the end of last year.

While app Annie does not release actual revenue numbers – it sells that information and data to software companies – it does create index charts and figures to describe revenue growth and market share. In this new report by the firm, it shows in the App Revenue Index that while Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) app revenue increased 700 percent, the amount of revenue in December 2012 was still less than half of the revenue that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) made in its App Store in December 2011.

What does this mean for Apple’s revenue? Did it go down during this time?