How frequently are Android apps in Google Play updated? I wish to know how frequently apps in Google Play are updated on average? For instance, statistics such as average number of apps updated per day or number of days in-between 2 successive updates of an app (on average) might be useful to deduce this. 

An example number that I wish to see is: 0.5% of apps in Google Play are updated every day (or something like this).


  I hypothesize that Android apps, given the easy development and
  distribution infrastructure, are updated much frequently than the
  desktop apps.


I wish to have more evidence to support this hypothesis. Please suggest link to any official information (or reliable from tech blogs) that would give insight into such statistics. Thanks.
From my observations of ~10,000 apps listed at my real-life categorized app-listings, the average app...


requests ~7 permissions
costs USD 0.88
was last updated ~1.5 years (~17 month or 492 days) ago


The last item, a little more detailed:

┌───────────────────────────────────────┬────────┐
| last updated more than 2 years ago    | 24.51% |
| last updated 1..2 years ago           | 20.27% |
| last updated 6..12 month ago          | 17.84% |
| updated within the last 6 month       | 34.87% |
└───────────────────────────────────────┴────────┘


As you've correctly pointed out in your comment, that doesn't sum up to 100%. The difference are apps currently not listed in any of the markets I cater for (i.e. Google Play, F-Droid, Aptoide). As unlistings may be (and sometimes have been) temporary, I still keep those for a few month before removing them finally. Plus add a little "rounding blur" ;)

So I'm afraid I just spoiled your theory...

BTW: Though you didn't ask for: Top categories of "max permissions per app on average" is, after "personal assistants" (31.7 perms/app) cheaper calls (22.2 perms/app – shame to him who thinks evil of it ;)). Only then come apps to remote-control your device (where many permissions make much sense, considered you want to control as much as possible), and "Antivirus", with ~19 perms/app each.

(Statistics as per November 5, 2014)