Many people would describe 2009 as 'the year of the application store', with billions of applications downloaded to mobile phones. Apple alone saw more than a billion applications downloaded by iPhone and iPod customers within six months.
ABI Research has calculated that a total of 2.3 billion apps have been downloaded this year – but expects an annual total of 5 billion downloads by 2014. The Apple platform is expected to remain in the lead, although Android will eat into its market share – increasing from an estimated 11% of the market this year to 23% in 2014. Revenue from mobile app sales will start to decline by 2013, according to ABI Research, as competition combined with with an increase in free and ad-funded software starts to affect prices. [Report]