14 DAY TRIAL // Smartphones and smartphone operating systems have started to gain more and more ground on the mobile phone market, also driving the usage of applications on mobile devices. According to a recent report from ABI Research, the number of mobile applications that will be downloaded by 2014 is expected to reach five billion, more than double when compared to the 2.3 billion applications that have been downloaded during the ongoing year. According to the research firm, the proliferation of application stores is another factor that will drive the growth in application downloads.
“The iPhone’s share of the app market will contract from its 2010 level during the latter part of the forecast period, but it will remain the leading platform for applications,” says wireless research associate Bhavya Khanna. “The big beneficiary will be Android, which will see its market share of total application downloads increase from 11% of the market in 2009 to 23% in 2014. This rapid growth is driven by the mass adoption of the Android OS by both vendors and consumers from 2009 onwards. There are now more than 14 phones that run the Android OS, and many more will launch in 2010. This, coupled with the rollout of application stores from both smartphone vendors and network operators, will see the iPhone’s share of the total market shrink between 2010 and 2014.”
According to ABI Research, the revenues from the sales of mobile software solutions is expected to decline by 2013, mainly due to the fact that the competition in the area will grow significantly, something that will impact the price tags of the applications. Moreover, the applications that are considered “must have” are expected to face an increasing competition from free applications, as well as from those who are advertising-supported. Google’s free turn-by-turn navigation service, states ABI Research, is a great example that this phenomena has already emerged.
ABI Research’s “Mobile Application Downloads, Revenue and Traffic” report is focused on mobile application downloads, and also tracks revenues from their sales, distributed on each platform. The report shows data and forecasts on platforms like Symbian, iPhone OS and Android, while also delivering previsions on application revenues, as well as a view on some of the main application portals available today. Additional details on the report can be found on ABI Research's website.