App search company Xyologic recently published 220 app download reports, including statistics regarding the number of downloads per platform/country, growth rates, country rankings, number of paid vs. free apps published and app revenue. There’s certainly a lot of information to digest. Luckily, we’re one of their insight partners so we have the inside scoop and can break it all down. Here are four key findings from the report (below the graphic):

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The Cross-Platform Conundrum

Although many big iOS publishers have already ported their apps to Android, it’s very interesting to see that there is almost no publisher in the space that has achieved a substantial number of app installs on both major smartphone platforms.

Wallets On Android Remain Closed

Publishers like Gameloft are very successful in selling premium titles all over the world on iOS, and the possibility to unlock additional features in paid apps is becoming more common, a prime example being popular action-RPG Infinity Blade. However, users on Android have a tendency not to pay for any content at all. Additionally, they do not tend to download paid apps in general (less than 1% of all downloads compared to 23% on iOS).

International Publishers Go Freemium – Locals Prefer Paid

Mostly, publishers of freemium apps are utilizing the opportunity to distribute their apps all over the world while specialized local publishers/developers are sticking to paid apps with additional free ‘lite’ releases.

Europe And USA Are Almost Equal

The sizes of the app economies of the most important European markets (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands, among others) are similar to that of the US— 702 million US downloads compared to 668 million downloads in Europe during the month of August 2011.

About the authors: Johannes Heinze and Projjol Banerjea are Director of Mobile and Director of Marketing at SponsorPay, a leading international platform for mobile application monetization, distribution and engagement.