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February 25, 2013

The Number of Mobile Applications Downloaded by Users Keeps Skyrocketing

The number of mobile application downloads has been skyrocketing and recent projections suggest that no end is in sight.

Berg Insight reports that the number of mobile applications downloaded globally actually doubled during 2012. The total number reached 60.1 billion last year. That compares to 29.5 billion during 2011. It was also projected that annual downloads will reach 108 billion by 2017.

In addition, there was a lot of money made from these apps. Berg Insight said revenue from applications (which includes direct revenue and in-app ad revenue) was about 6.4 billion Euros ($8,505,600,000) in 2012. Berg Insight forecasts that app revenue will jump at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent to reach 14.1 billion Euros ($18,738,900,000) in 2017.

Apple’s App Store is at the top when it comes to mobile apps and will continue to be number one over the next few years, Berg Insight predicts. Google Play will be in second place and Windows Phone Store in third place in 2017, projections from the firm added.

It was also found that increases in app downloads during last year were mainly from activity in the Apple App Store, Google Play and some third-party app stores. In addition, Android was the top platform for app downloads during 2012 because of activity in third-party app stores. Third-party app stores appear to be more profitable in certain nations besides those located in the Western world.

 “Third party app stores are especially popular in China and other markets where Google Play hasn’t become the default on-device app store,” Johan Svanberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight, said in a statement from the firm.

Berg Insight also found some key trends about the app market, such as more free apps and multiplatform support. In addition, social features are being used to increase the number of users and increase engagement.

“Every app can find its own way to success, but common strategies today among many of the top revenue generating app developers are to publish apps featuring a social layer on more than one platform using free to download monetization,” Svanberg said.

It was also recently found that about 2.8 million patients across the world were using a home monitoring service with integrated connectivity at the end of 2012, according to a Berg Insight report.

These had dedicated devices for remote monitoring. So those patients using personal mobile phones, tablets or PCs for remote monitoring were not included in the number.

Also, the report said that the number of home monitoring systems with integrated communication will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 26.9 percent between 2011 and 2017 and will total 9.4 million connections worldwide, Berg Insight reported.




Edited by Brooke Neuman


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