Report: US Mobile App Market to Pass $4 billion Mark by 2013
Market research firm Yankee Group estimates that nearly 7 billion U.S. smartphone app downloads will drive $4.2 billion in revenue by 2013. And with the number of smartphone users set to quadruple to 160 million at the same time, Yankee Group uses just two words to describe the market to come: gold rush.
Yankee Group offers key insights for developers and app store owners to position themselves in this market and be profitable:
- Fit the app to the platform. The target platform(s) should be chosen based on the nature of the app.
- Price your apps appropriately. Paid apps will account for one quarter of all downloads in 2013. While 99-cent apps are the norm now, Yankee Group predicts that paid apps will cost $2.37 on average by 2013, increasing today’s $343 million download market by more than 10 times over those five years.
- Focus on marketing. App store owners need to attract developers by marketing their apps and promoting the store’s successes via top 25 lists, download counters and running revenue tallies.
