Juniper predicts that the annual number of consumer-oriented handset downloads is expected to
rise from less than 2.6 billion in 2009 to more than 25 billion in
2015.
Players across the mobile value chain are
seeking to emulate Apple's success with the App Store by launching
own-brand storefronts, such as 'Mobile Market' from China Unicom,
'Airtel App Central' from Bharti and the 'Apps & Games Shop' on
Vodafone 360. Furthermore, the transition to an app-centric environment
has also benefited more established storefronts such as GetJar, which
passed 1 billion downloads earlier this month.
However, the Juniper report cautioned that players seeking to launch
app stores would need to demonstrate sufficient scale to be able to
induce developers to provide them with unique content.
As report author
Dr Windsor Holden observed, "Apple has been able to achieve several
billion downloads from a comparatively small handset base because
customers are buying the iPhone for the apps. That's not been the case
with other handsets. So even if you have a subscriber base of tens of
millions, your addressable market is a fraction of that -- and spread
across a variety of operating systems and handsets."
The report also noted that freemium was becoming the prevalent
business model, with publishers increasingly offering applications free
at point of sale and subsequently monetising them via in-app billing of
subscription-based services, upgrades to premium content or
micropayments for virtual items.
A white paper exploring the challenges of an app store-centric
ecosystem, 'A World of Apps' is available to download from the new
Juniper Research website today. To explore the new functionality and
features of the new site and to register for free whitepapers and blogs,
please go to www.juniperresearch.com.
Further details of the study 'Mobile App Stores: Business Models,
Strategies & Market Segmentation 2010-2015' can be downloaded from
the Juniper website.