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In sheer number of downloads and revenue, the mobile app market continues to grow, beating full-year 2009 numbers in just the first half of 2010 and reached $2.2 billion in revenue – topping the $1.7 billion in revenue for all of 2009.
Downloads are growing rapidly too, reaching 3.9 billion in the first half of 2010 versus 3.1 billion for all of 2009. International Data Corporation predicts that the number of mobile application downloads worldwide will grow from 10.9 billion in 2010 to 76.9 billion in 2014. The market intelligence company also anticipates mobile app revenues will surpass $35 billion in 2014.
Games are the most popular mobile application, according to “App Playbook” data from The Nielsen Company. Overall, 14% of mobile phone users have downloaded an application in the past 30 days. Games were the most frequently downloaded application by all users, downloaded by 65% of past-30-day smartphone downloaders and 59% of past-30-day feature phone downloaders.
We expect accelerated growth in the mobile apps market as even more applications make their way to tablets, Internet-connected TVs and other devices in the years ahead.
“Mobile app developers will ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds,” says Scott Ellison, IDC mobile and wireless research vice president.
Essentially, IDC is making the claim that mobile applications, and associated revenues, are here to stay. Previous research from the Pew Internet Project points to 24% of the U.S. adult population using apps, with app users having 18 apps on their device on average.