Following market research by ABI Research that found that the mobile app market could be worth as much as US$27 billion this year, Gartner has weighed in with its own study and found that some 102 billion apps will be downloaded from mobile app stores this year. This is nearly 40 billion more apps than were downloaded only a year ago. As for revenues, Gartner expects them to fall in the US$26 billion range, up from US$18 billion the previous year.
“We expect strong growth in downloads through 2014, but growth is forecast to slow down a bit in later years,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. “The average downloads per device should be high in early years as users get new devices and discover the apps they like. Over time they accumulate a portfolio of apps they like and stick to, so there will be moderate numbers of downloads in the later years.”
Not surprisingly, free apps dominate and are expected to account for 91 percent of total downloads in 2013. They account for 60 and 80 percent respectively of downloads in Apple’s App Store and Google Play. While free app downloads are only expected to rise in the coming years, in-app-purchases will do so alongside, climbing from about 17 percent of store revenues in 2013 to a projected 48 percent in 2017.
Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, already dominating forces, are expected to account for 90 percent of global downloads in 2017. Here’s how things are shaping up for the next few years:
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Downloads | 57331 | 92876 | 127704 | 167054 | 211313 | 253914 |
| Paid-for Downloads | 6654 | 9186 | 11105 | 12574 | 13488 | 14778 |
| Total Downloads | 63985 | 102062 | 138809 | 179628 | 224801 | 268692 |
| Free Downloads % | 89.6 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 94.5 |
| Source: Gartner (September 2013) |
Are you among the nearly 20 percent already making purchases in-app? If not, do you expect to make your first in-app purchase in the near future? Let us know below.
Source : Gartner