Projected tablet app revenues will overtake smartphones by 2017
The mobile app market will be valued at $27 billion in 2013 as tablet devices push app downloads, a new study has shown.
Mobile apps continue to be a critical factor in the battle between the mobile operating systems (OS), stated ABI Research. BlackBerry and Windows are slowly augmenting their apps catalogue as they compete for the third ecosystem, but are still far behind Apple and Android.
'iOS continues to lead the way, and the OS is projected to generate over two-thirds of the revenues for smartphone and tablet apps in 2013,' said senior analyst at ABI, Josh Flood.
'Although Google's Android OS recently surpassed Apple in terms of total app numbers, iOS users continue to prove they're more willing to depart with their cash. The revenue gap between the two leading OS's looks unlikely to close over the next 18 months.'
An interesting aspect of the mobile app market is revenues generated by smartphone versus tablets. So far, app revenues generated from smartphones have significantly dwarfed app revenues from tablets. However, tablet revenues are quickly catching up and it is projected tablet app revenues will overtake smartphones by 2017.
The inclination for tablet users is to pay more for apps to use on their tablets, than their smartphones, because of the larger screen size and better user experience for gaming and reading are the primary drivers, concluded Flood.
