The mobile app market is about to get a whole lot bigger, with Apple poised to play a central role. According to a report from research firm MarketsandMarkets' the mobile app market will nearly quadruple in the next five years, from $6.8 billion in 2010 to about $25 billion in 2015.Apple's App Store is expected to capture about 20.5 percent of the burgeoning market, according to the report, which was first picked up by TechCrunch.
As it stands, Apple is currently the leading mobile app marketplace with some 300,000 apps at last report. However, Google's Android eco-system is catching up, and Microsoft's freshly releasedWindows Phone 7 Marketplace has about 5,000 apps. The research firm's report suggests that there's plenty of room for all competitors to grow as apps smarten up, mobile data usage costs drop, and smartphones grow in worldwide popularity.
While North America is currently the market leader with about 42 percent revenue share, Europe is expected to lead the way by 2015. Asia, currently the largest market in terms of downloads, is also expected to become a major player in the mobile app marketplace.
MarketsandMarkets divided the mobile apps into two submarkets: carrier-managed on-deck apps and direct-to-consumer off-deck apps. At present, on-deck apps comprise about three-quarters of global mobile applications revenues, but the research firm expects off-deck apps to experience faster future growth, due to new app stores and lower cost to entry barriers. By the end of 2015, off-deck apps may actually surpass total downloads of on-deck stores. So even though you can expect major players of today to stick around for years to come, it looks like a there will be plenty of room for variety in the global, mobile app marketplace.
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