A new report from International Data Corp. (IDC) is projecting that the mobile application business will soon grow from 10.9 billion downloads this year to 76.9 billion downloads in 2014. This growth will also mean a 60% per year increase in mobile application revenue, says the report.
By 2014, the mobile application business will generate $35 billion in revenue worldwide.
Comparing the Numbers
IDC isn’t the first to report such a startling increase in revenue generated by mobile applications. In January, for example, research firm Gartner predicted that app stores would become a $7 billion dollar business this year. By March, independent mobile app store GetJar released a study which predicted the mobile app marketplace would reach $17.5 billion by 2012. And GetJar’s numbers lined up with yet another report from research2guidance that estimated the smartphone market would grow to $15.65 by 2013.
According to IDC’s report, however, mobile app revenue was at $4.9 billion this year, a bit lower than Gartner had predicted at 2010’s start.
IDC’s report talked about the “appification” of a broad categories of interactions.
“Mobile app developers will ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds,” said Scott Ellison, vice president, Mobile and Wireless research at IDC. “The extension of mobile apps to every aspect of our personal and business lives will be one of the hallmarks of the new decade with enormous opportunities for virtually every business sector.”
