iOS still dominates Google Play for making money as China and Japan turn up the spending

Google Play and iOS are both growing, but its Apple that still has it where it counts — the bottom line.

When it comes to the raw number of downloads on a platform, Google Play is outperforming the iOS App Store, according to industry-tracking firm App Annie, but Apple’s mobile system is still making more money. In the last quarter, Google Play had 60 percent more downloads than Apple’s market. That’s up from 45 percent more last quarter. That growing margin didn’t really help Google Play catch up on the revenue side of things. The App Store still made 80 percent more revenue than Google Play. The big reasons for this are China and Japan — although this doesn’t reflect the full story for Android. Mobile-game spending reached $16 billion in 2013, and it is on pace to bring in even more this year.