The success of Apple’s Application Store has not only established the salability of mobile applications, but has also shown that the most excellent applications offer the potential to generate large amount of revenues. Several telecom giants have thus begun providing dedicated application stores for their users, so much so that more than 2 million applications are currently available for communications, games, multimedia, productivity, travel, and utility purposes.

About 6.4 billion (free, paid, and ad-supported) application downloads were made globally in 2009 alone from native (on-deck) and third-party (off-deck) application stores, generating revenues of $4.5 billion in the same year. Apple, with 2.5 billion downloads, dominated the applications market in 2009. However, new players like Google, Nokia, and RIM are rapidly entering the applications market space, as the increasing uptake and usability of smartphone devices further boosts the mobile applications market. According to our estimates, the global mobile applications market is expected to be worth $25.0 billion in 2015, growing at a CAGR of 29.6% from 2010 to 2015.

Markets Covered

The study includes native (downloadable) mobile applications (not web-based applications) for mobile devices like smartphones and feature phones (not iPad or tablet PCs). The market segmentation on the basis of store type includes on-deck (operators, mobile device manufacturers, and Operating System (OS) developers managed) and off-deck (independent or third-party managed) stores. This research report categorizes the global market for mobile applications on the basis of

Mobile applications categories:

• Games
• Social Networking
• Books
• Entertainment
• Business and Finance
• Lifestyle
• Productivity
• Travel
• Navigation
• Utilities
• Others

• Native or on deck
• Third party or off deck

• OS/handset manufacturers
• Application developers
• Operators

World Mobile Applications Market research report provides market estimates and forecasts for the global markets of mobile applications in North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). In addition to market sizing and forecasts, the report also offers a detailed analysis of the market trends, opportunities, and the factors influencing the growth of each segment of the mobile applications market. The report also draws a competitive landscape, analyzing core competencies of major players and strategies adopted to expand their market presence.

Stakeholders

The targeted audience for this report includes:

• Handset manufacturers
• Mobile phone operators
• Mobile software developers
• Application store providers
• Retail electronics distributors
• Enterprises and businesses that require business-specific applications and publish their own applications

• The report uses a combination of primary and secondary research to arrive at market estimates.
• The size of the mobile applications market is calculated using a bottom-up approach; using volume (downloads/year) and prices validated by the key market participants such as CEOs, VPs, and product managers.
• Market sizes were also verified by the cost volume approach.
• Prices and pricing trends in different geographies were identified and analyzed through secondary research, and the average selling price per unit calculated.
• All currencies were converted into USD, based on which the weighted average price of a mobile application was calculated.
• Geographical market split was arrived at by determining users, cost of applications, and the adoption rate in different regions.

Global Mobile Applications Market

The phenomenal success of Apple’s App Store (more than 2 billion downloads within a year of its inception i.e. 2008) boosted the growth of the Global Mobile Applications Market and also established online application storefronts as the most important distribution channel for mobile content and applications. This prompted many Operating System (OS) vendors, device manufacturers, independent mobile players, and mobile operators to launch their own application stores to capture a share of the fast growing mobile applications market. The year 2009 saw high growth of mobile applications market both in terms of volume and value from the 2008 levels – volume (downloads) grew from 1,100 million in 2008 to 6,440 million in 2009 and revenue grew from $1,490 million in 2008 to $4,510 million in 2009. This unprecedented growth in the mobile applications market is attributed to Apple’s App Store that has changed the dynamics of the market by adopting the volume-driven approach and ensuring increased involvement of developers.

We expect that the global mobile applications market will be worth $25.0 billion by the end of 2015, with a CAGR of 29.6% from 2010 to 2015. However, the number of downloads will show a faster growth at CAGR of 64.2% during the same period and is expected to reach 144 billion downloads in 2015. The disconnect between the growth of revenue and downloads is mainly due to the reduction expected in the average selling price of mobile applications (from $0.57 in 2010 to $0.18 in 2015), faster growth of free mobile application downloads (65.4% growth rate for free applications as compared to 33.3% for paid applications during 2010–2015), and growth in ad-supported mobile applications.

Each sub-segment of the global mobile applications market is calculated for the four geographical regions of North America, Europe, Asia, and ROW. North America is leading the market in 2009 with a 41.6% revenue share; however Asia is the largest market in terms of downloads with 36.0%. The European mobile applications market stood at $1.2 billion in 2009 which is expected to become largest market in 2015 at 8.4 billion growing at a CAGR of 33.6% during 2010 – 2015.

The mobile applications market is partially consolidated with the top three players –Apple, RIM and GetJar – holding more than 83% of the market. These industry leaders are employing a number of growth strategies such as frequent product launches, agreements and collaborations with software and OS developers and network operators to offer their product at highest subsidies to increase their market presence. Increased R&D investments have also had a positive impact on product enhancement and differentiation strategies.