The popularity of apps is providing more options for mobile phone owners around the world.
New findings from ABI Research have revealed revenues accumulated by the global mobile application market are on target to exceed $30 billion (£18.7 billion) by the time 2012 draws to a close.
This amount is almost double that seen in 2011 and includes revenues from a number of sources, including pay per downloads, subscriptions, in-app purchases and in-app advertisements.
Aapo Markkanen, a senior analyst at ABI – which was established in 1990 – explained apps have become a major digital industry, with benefits no longer likely to be seen in the short-term only.
Mr Markkanen noted the volume of app downloads has shown a high interest in apps by consumers for some time now, but added: “It’s 2012 that will go down in history as the year when the economic side of the business finally took off.”
The industry figure pointed to Apple and Google as being significant contributors to the success of the app industry, which have played a big part in helping the sector generate the revenue it has.
