In-app purchases account for 72% of iPhone app revenue

Hendrik Koekkeok of app store monitoring firm Distimo headed up a presentation at the Verizon Developer Community Conference in Las Vegas in which he revealed the stunning rise in revenue generated from apps featuring in-app purchases.

Today 72% of iPhone app revenue comes from apps featuring in-app purchases. Almost half (48%) of those in-app purchases are made from freemium apps.

The above figures are even more astounding when you consider that, according to Distimo, just 4% of apps in the iPhone App Store feature in-app purchases.

Freemium apps are growing significantly faster in the in-app purchasing world. Free app downloads have increased by 34% since 2010 while paid downloads only grew 7% in the same time frame.

Apple recently announced that over 15 billion apps have now been downloaded from its App Store which contains almost half a million apps.