According to new research from Gartner, 90% of app store downloads this year will be on Apple’s App Store and Google Play. This will lead to global app revenues of $26 billion in 2013, and in the future, growth in revenues will outstrip that of app downloads.
As always the free downloads of the apps will dominate the scene- this year 91% of the downloads will be free(nearly 83 billion) -in-app purchases and advertising will continue to grow in importance for developers’ business models. This year, IAP will account for 17% of revenues — $4.42 billion — but that will rise sharply in the next four years, accounting for 48% of all revenues by 2017. As a point of reference, in 2011, IAP was 11% of revenues.
Gartner projected that, by 2017 there will revenue of $77 billion with the help of 268 billion downloads annually, that simply means app revenue growth is actually going to overtake that of download growth. In all the cases users need to pay just to download is very clear. It’s already having an effect of how developers are pricing on stores.
Image Source: Gartner