The mobile-phone application market is becoming a multibillion-dollar business.
Research firm Ovum predicts that paid-for mobile-phone apps will yield $3.7 billion in revenues this year, reflecting growth of 92 percent from $1.95 billion in 2010.
Meanwhile, global mobile-phone app downloads will exceed 18 billion by the end of 2011, Ovum said, constituting a 144 percent increase from the 7.4 billion downloads last year.
“Consumers’ seemingly insatiable demand for mobile applications is set to continue this year, with downloads from app stores increasing around the world," Ovum devices analyst Nick Dillon said.
In a new forecast, Ovum also predicts that phone app downloads through Android – Google’s popular operating system that is incorporated in many smartphones today – will exceed those from Apple for the first time this year with Android accounting for 8.1 billion downloads well ahead of Apple’s 6 billion. Last year, Android accounted for 1.4 billion downloads behind Apple’s 2.7 billion.
“The huge lead in downloads that Android will take on Apple is being driven by the growth of the platform as a result of its increasing popularity and progress into lower price points," Dillon said. “But although Android phones will lead on total download numbers, iPhone will continue to dominate the market in terms of revenues from paid-for apps, reaching $6.86 billion in 2016, compared to $1.5 billion for Android."
