14 DAY TRIAL // According to a recently published study from Wireless Expertise, a UK-based research firm, the smartphone sales around the world are expected to rise from about 165.2 million in 2009 to 422.96 million in 2013, driving the mobile application market to increase from $4.66 billion this year to $16.60 billion in 2013.
The research firm also states that the number of smartphone users is expected to reach 1.6 billion in the time frame, and these devices will account for around 30 percent of the market by 2013. The mobile application market will also see an impressive increase, and it will open greater opportunities for the industry. Wireless Expertise forecasts that mobile phones should outnumber personal computers by 4 to 1.
“We expect smartphone growth to have a positive impact on the number of application downloads in the short- to mid-term,” said Anuj Khanna, CEO of Wireless Expertise and author of the report. “Strong revenues are expected to come from low-end mass market smartphones and mid-to high-end feature-phones in the mid- to long-term as operators and handset manufacturers take app stores to the mass market.”
The company that launched the application store trend among mobile phone makers is Apple, yet it will face great competition in the near future, it seems. The research firm estimates that Nokia will be a very active player in the smartphone market, and says that it has the advantage of offering content on the Ovi Store for a wider range of handsets than Apple. Moreover, the Finnish vendor is pushing Ovi to the mass market, also an encouraging fact.
“Diverse and competing mobile operating systems from other vendors such as Symbian, Google Android, Microsoft Windows and Research in Motion will also help in growing the market,” Khanna concluded. “We predict the emergence of independent mobile application stores which specialise in niche content such as games and location-based services.”