Mobile App Market Could Top $17 Billion by 2012
Within the next two years, sales of mobile device applications could top $17.5 billion, nearly tripling the current annual app market, according to the results of a study released on Wednesday.
The study, which had been commissioned by mobile app developer GetJar, also found that global handset software downloads will increase from seven billion in 2009 to 50 billion by 2012.
In addition to GetJar, the world’s second-largest provider for mobile apps, findings cover iPhone and smart phone offerings from the industry leaders at Apple, as well as from companies such as Samsung, BlackBerry, Microsoft, Google, and Nokia.
According to GetJar founder and CEO Ilja Laurs, the findings prove that mobile devices will eventually overcome traditional desktop and laptop computing devices.
"It is easy to see how mobile apps will eclipse the traditional desktop Internet," Laurs told AFP on March 17. "It makes perfect sense that mobile devices will kill the desktop."
According to BBC News technology reporter Maggie Shiels, the study also showed that "Apple’s domination of the market could be challenged."
Laurs founded GetJar in Lithuania in 2004, and the company has since added offices in California and London as well. It has developed more than 60,000 mobile applications for various platforms, including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Android. The company’s products had been downloaded more than 800 million times by 15 million users from 200-plus countries worldwide.
In comparison, Apple’s iPhone App Store boasted 3 billion downloads in the first 18 months of the device’s lifespan. The company is believed to earn somewhere in the range of $240 million to more than $400 million in revenue through the storefront, though Apple themselves has refused to release any profit figures to the public. The company launches its iPad mobile device on April 3.
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