New figures from technology research company Gartner anticipate that 102 billion applications will be downloaded from mobile app stores this year, up from 64 billion in 2012. Less than one in ten of those apps will be chargeable to download, according to Gartner’s forecasts.
However, total revenue generated from mobile apps is expected to reach $26 billion (£16 billion) in 2013, up from last year’s total of $18 billion.
In-app purchases are expected to account for 48% of this app store revenue by 2017, up from 11% last year and 17% in 2013.
Brian Blau, research director at Gartner, said “Free apps currently account for about 60% and 80% of the total available apps in Apple's App Store and Google Play, respectively. iOS and Android app stores combined are forecast to account for 90% of global downloads in 2017. These app stores are still increasingly active due to richer ecosystems and large and very active developer communities. However, we expect 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 will decline from 6.2 in 2013 to 5.8 in 2017. This relates back to the overall trend of users using the same apps more often rather than downloading new ones.”
Worldwide Mobile App Store Downloads (millions of downloads)
| |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
| Free downloads |
57,331 |
82,876 |
127,704 |
167,054 |
211,313 |
253,914 |
| % free downloads |
89.6% |
91.0% |
92.0% |
93.0% |
94.0% |
94.5% |
| Paid-for downloads |
6,654 |
9,186 |
11,105 |
12,574 |
13,488 |
14,778 |
| Total downloads |
63,985 |
102,062 |
138,809 |
179,628 |
244,801 |
268,692 |
[Report]