Mobile App Stores A New Mobile Web?

Mobile applications (apps), both free and paid, have experienced exponential growth in recent years. Pyramid Research is forecasting that this growth curve will continue through 2014, though the mobile apps market will evolve differently in different regions. A key driver of mobile app growth is the app store concept popularized by Apple and subsequently adopted by all the major mobile players. Operator portals will need a mixture of agility, compelling apps and local market sensitivity to keep pace. Meanwhile, app developers stand to benefit the most from increasingly aggressive competition for mobile app revenue.

Mobile App Stores: A New Mobile Web? provides in-depth, up-to-the-moment analysis of the mobile content marketplace, focusing on the app stores of major market players such as Apple, Nokia, Research In Motion (BlackBerry), and Microsoft, as well as operator app stores. In addition, the report looks at the sea change in mobile advertising that may be coming with the release of Apple’s OS 4.0 for the iPhone.

Key findings include:

The impact of application (app) stores on the mobile market should not be understated. We estimate that the total download volume (free and paid) will increase by a factor of seven between 2009 and 2014.

Although paid apps have increased substantially in volume with the emergence of app stores, free apps have really boomed. In 2010 we project that 36% of paid apps will be downloaded through app stores and 86% of free downloads will take place through them. Advertising revenue as a result has increased substantially, and app stores are working on monetizing this opportunity.