Driven by a surge in use and adoption of the device during the COVID-19 pandemic, quarterly first-time downloads of apps for Apple’s iPad surpassed 1.1 billion worldwide in the first quarter of 2020, marking the first year-over-year growth in this metric since the fourth quarter of 2013 and a 40% increase from quarter one of 2019.
At the same time, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals that quarterly global consumer spending in iPad apps saw its largest year-over-year increase since quarter four of 2014 at 16%, while crossing the US$2 billion threshold for the first quarter ever
The research group adds that last quarter’s total of new app installs on iPad was its largest since the third quarter of 2016, when consumers worldwide downloaded an estimated 1.16 billion iPad apps for the first time. One year ago (quarter one of 2019), first-time iPad app downloads were down 19% year-over-year.
Sensor Tower says that more significant than the 40% year-over-year growth in new iPad app installs in quarter one was the 52% quarter-over-quarter increase from quarter four of 2019, when the total number of downloads reached approximately 735 million globally—379 million fewer than last quarter.
Monthly installs of iPad apps also reached their highest level since February 2015 last month, when they climbed to nearly 438 million, a year-over-year increase of almost 72% and month-over-month growth of about 21%. China was responsible for the largest number of March’s new iPad app installs at 151 million, its third best month and largest March ever. The U.S. saw monthly iPad app downloads surpass 100 million for the first time since January 2016 last month, a figure 47% higher than March 2019.
