Research and Markets: Mobile Applications Futures 2013-2017

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/qg7mkl/mobile) has announced the addition of the "Mobile Applications Futures 2013-2017" report to their offering.

Analysis and Growth Forecasts for the Worldwide Mobile Applications Market

The apps business has finally come of age' and this worldwide success story is now growing fast. Apps generated an impressive USD 12 billion in full-year 2012, and in total 46 billion apps were downloaded in the year, taking the cumulative all-time total downloads since the app game began, to 83 billion. That is certainly a market in rapid growth, just look at those numbers again. The all-time cumulative total number of downloads stood at 37 billion at the end of 2011, but reached 83 billion by the end of 2012, more than doubling in one year. So in 2012, more apps were downloaded that in the previous 5 years all added together.

Market doubling in 2013

This doubling is forecast to happen again in 2013. Our new forecasts show that 2013 will see 82 billion apps downloaded worldwide, taking the cumulative total to 165 billion apps by the end of the year. Revenues are set for space rocket' growth too, after 2012 saw full-year app revenues of USD 12 billion, in 2013 we forecast worldwide app revenues to reach USD 20.4 billion.

From this doubling of the apps business in 2013, we forecast that downloads will continue to grow to exceed 200 billion per year by the end of full year 2017, and revenues in 2017 will reach 63.5 billion US dollars.

This is impressive growth. While worldwide the mobile subscriber base is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 4.8 percent over the period 2012 to 2017, and annual handset shipments are expected to increase at a CAGR of 6.6 percent over the same time frame, apps downloads are forecast to grow at 35.9 percent CAGR.

So what is driving this rapid growth in downloads?

Our data shows that in mature markets, usage of apps per person is starting to level off, in Europe and North America, the number of apps downloaded per person is reaching a stable level. What's driving the growth in the app download business is the rapid growth in smartphone and tablet sales.

Smartphone shipments worldwide are expected to reach 823 million this year, in 2013. Smartphones accounted for around 41 percent of total handset shipments during 2012. This figure is expected to reach 46 percent during 2013, and more than half (56 percent) of total handset shipments will be smartphones by 2017. From 680 million smartphones shipped in 2012, we expect to see 1296 smartphones shipped in 2017, almost double the number.

Similarly, tablet sales are enjoying explosive growth now. Tablet shipments are forecast to average a CAGR of 24 percent over the period 2012-2017, rising from 2012 shipments of 136 million, to 2013 shipments of 208 million, going on to 2017 shipments of 398 million devices. Due to this rapid growth in smartphone and tablet sales, we forecast that over the period 2012-2017, the number of apps users will grow at a CAGR of 29.8 percent, to reach 4.4 billion users by the end of 2017, 4 times as many apps users as there are today.

This detailed new report explores all these issues, and delivers all these forecasts for each year to 2017, all in great detail to help you understand this massive growth opportunity.

Key Topics Covered:

Introduction

Mobile Applications Users

Mobile Applications Downloads

Mobile Applications Revenues

Paid Apps Download Revenues

Mobile Applications Advertising Revenues

In-app Purchase Revenues

Major Applications Stores Comparison

Carrier-owned Applications Stores

Other Application Stores

App Stores Content Analysis