Must-read Report on the Mobile App Market
GetJar, one of the many app stores we track in the WIP App Store wiki, commissioned a really great report from well-known mobile analyst Chetan Sharma on the state of the mobile app market that’s a must read for anybody involved with mobile apps. It’s a free download, too, so there’s no excuse not to spend a few minutes with it.
Chetan says there were 7 billion apps downloaded in 2009, and he predicts this will boom to 50 billion downloads by 2012, including both paid and free apps. He says apps generated revenues of $4.1 billion from sales, advertising and virtual goods in 2009, and this will jump to $17.5 billion in 2012.
A few other choice bits in the comprehensive, 19-page report:
- More than a third of app downloads came from Asia, more than any other region.
- Paid apps are strongest in North America, with the continent generating more than half the global paid app revenues.
- Furthermore, the average paid app price in North America is $1.09, compared to just under 80 cents in Europe, and under 20 cents in South America, Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
- Advertising generated 12% of app revenue in 2009, and this will grow to 28% in 2012.
- However, the average ad revenue generated was 9 cents per app per user per year.
- Tomi Ahonen did some number-crunching of his own and determined that mobile apps have a global ARPU of $3.14 per year, or 26 cents per month. He notes that sounds small until you consider ringtones have an ARPU of 11 cents per month.
Special thanks to Chetan for referring to the App Store Wiki and using it as a resource, and great job on the report!