According to Gartner, free applications will account for 89 per cent of total downloads in 2012. The worldwide mobile application store downloads will surpass 45.6 billion in 2012, with free downloads accounting for 40.1 billion, and paid-for downloads accounting for another 5 billion.
Also, lower-priced applications will drive the majority of downloads. The research firm says that applications between 99 cents and $2.99 will account for 87.5 per cent of paid-for downloads in 2012, and 96 per cent by 2016
Gartner expects Apple’s application store to register more than 21 billion downloads in 2012, an increase of 74 per cent over 2011.
According to Gartner in-application purchases will drive 41 per cent of the store revenue in 2016. While the market is moving toward free and low-priced applications, in-application purchases will drive downloads as well as application store revenue.
It expects the number of downloads featuring in-application purchase to increase from 5 per cent of total downloads in 2011 to 30 per cent in 2016. In-applications contribution to the store revenue is expected to increase from 10 per cent in 2011 to 41 per cent in 2016.
