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The Year of the App' ...
(19 Jan 2010, BWCS Staff)2010 will, among many other things, be the year of the mobile application, claims US heavyweight research group Gartner. According to the American researchers, consumers around the world will shell out a total of over US$6.2 billion to purchase mobile applications from various online stores. At the same time advertising on mobile phones should reach US$600 million this year, giving a clear indication of where the money is. In terms of mobile apps, of course, the market is dominated by Apple.
The predicted online spend for 2010 is a huge increase of around 42% on the US$4.2 billion that Gartner says consumers spent on apps in 2009. It is widely expected that online mobile application stores will see around 4.5 billion downloads this year, however, 80% of these will be free to end users. By 2013 the Gartner team believes this figure will reach 21.6 billion with the free element rising to 87% of the total. By 2013 the total revenue generated by mobile application downloads will reach US$29.5 billion the American research group predicts.
In a statement, Gartner said that mobile games will remain the most popular application to download, meanwhile social networking and productivity tools will continue to expand and continue to persuade consumers to part with their money. Interestingly the research company believes that the average smart phone user will become less tech-savvy as the price of the handsets declines and they appeal more to a mass market. These less technically adept users will also be less inclined to seek out and pay for applications.
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