According to Gartner, annual downloads from mobile application stores are expected to increase from 64 billion in 2012 to 102 billion in 2013. In addition, the total revenue for the industry is forecast to increase from $18 billion in 2012 to $26 billion.
Free applications will account for 91 per cent of the total downloads in 2013. Further, in-application purchases (IAPs) will drive 17 per cent of the mobile store revenue in 2013. IAP is expected to witness strong growth in 2013 and 2014, however such downloads will gradually decline due to smart devices reaching more mass-market consumers whose willingness and affordability to spend on IAPs is lower than early adopters. Nevertheless, IAP will become a major monetisation tool for application stores and developers.
The research firm says that free applications currently account for about 60 per cent and 80 per cent of the total applications available in Apple?s App Store and Google Play, respectively. By 2017, mobile stores offering Android-based applications are forecast to account for 90 per cent of the global downloads. The growing popularity of Android-based handsets and a strong Android-based application developer community are the key growth drivers of these mobile stores.
However, Gartner expects average monthly downloads per iOS device to decline from 4.9 in 2013 to 3.9 in 2017, while average monthly downloads per Android device to decline from 6.2 in 2013 to 5.8 in 2017. The research firm says that the expected decline will be owing to consumers increasingly using the same applications more often rather than downloading new ones.
