The App store has been one of the major success stories for Apple in recent times. Ever since Apple launched the App Store in 2008, close to 140,000 apps have been added to the App Store and these apps have been downloaded over 3 billion times. The success of the App Store is also one reason why the iPhone has a significant headstart when it comes to competition from the likes of Droid and Nexus One.
Today, most smartphone platforms have an application marketplace for their users. While the likes of Android marketplace has seen moderate success, most of these platforms fall behind when it comes to the sheer number of apps present or downloaded. A recent report from market research firm Gartner offers some interesting insights into this state of the app economy.
According to this report, Apple holds an indomitable market share of 99.4% in terms of the number of apps downloaded. That is close to $4.2 billion in value through 2009. The report is highly optimistic about the growth in app sales in the years to come and predicts 21.6 billion apps to be sold in 2013 - contributing close to $29.5 billion.
Not all of these is through app sales. The report has included advertising revenues from free apps as well and according to their study, close to one-fourth of the $29.5 billion in 2013 could possibly be from advertising. With Apple's recent acquisition of mobile advertising firm, Quattro Wireless, the company stands to make significant revenue from free apps as well.
However, Apple's lead is now highly dependent on how long the App Store sales can continue to out-do competition. With a series of Android powered smartphones expected to be out in the next few months, Apple has a tough few months ahead to try and sustain its pole position.
What do you think? With a slew of rival smartphones launching in the market, will Apple be able to hold on to its lead in the race to grab apps market share? How do you think the arrival of the Apple Tablet would change the equations? Please tell us your thoughts in the comments.
[via Ars Technica]
Great post and a good point about the App markets. I think the app market places are going to grow. However, Apple might not have to worry much from the Android Market. The current situation looks like the Android app market will fracture between carriers and handset makers. VZW has already made a point at CES this year that it is going to pursue its own market place for smartphones and I am sure others will follow.
The real threat for Apple is yet to be completely defined, ie. the enterprise app market place. I think enterprise applications will need a different market place and marketing strategy which could be a huge challenge for Apple.
OBVIOUSLY!!!
All Apps are from the iPhone store because its the only store to have apps, Android just came out so dont expect too much.
One thing is they dont count purchases but (re)downloads.
And in a years time i would like to see the competition of the 2 major app stores, apple vs google. people will be making same apps for both stores but then there will be rivalry on who is the cheapest? or do more? which might increase what the API can do …. so give android a bit of time to establish itself and then we shall see, since the take up of the OS was from 2% to now 21% i'm positive google will over shadow apple in say 3 years time.