Yankee Group Predicts $4.2 Billion Mobile App Gold Rush by 2013

The appstore market keeps booming. iTunes appstore is now showing the top apps by earnings in a separate category which gives you an indication of which apps generate top dollars and to no ones surprise 80% of the top apps are games and only a few major players (EA, Gameloft, etc) as well as a few independent development houses are making money. We believe that the forecast by Yankee Group is too optimistic in terms of direct premium revenue. One of the reasons is that customer overestimate their spend on apps and the number of great free apps available. According to our estimates only a few hundred or less than 1% of the apps on the iTunes appstore generates a positive return to the developer. So is mobile apps a big bubble?

The answer is definitely no. There is a much bigger story. In addition to games, apps are used for marketing, information, productivity, communication, networking and much more so the overall value to mobile operators, advertisers, consumers and businesses is much bigger. According to Strategy Analytics approximately 20% of all apps downloaded to date in 2009 have been to an iPhone or iPod which makes the total number of downloads over 5Bn. This is almost 1 download per inhabitant on this earth. Amazing figures and yet they will continue to grow.

Read the full pressrelease by Yankee Group here