Smartphone users these days are spoiled for choice with the variety of apps available to them via different ‘app stores’. As ABI Research data discloses, there were around 2.4 billion applications downloaded by users last year. The company now predicts that the rate would continue to increase over the next couple of years and by 2013, smartphone downloads would climax at a little below seven billion.
“App stores aren’t going away: following the 2013 peak in demand, the number of downloads in 2015 will have decreased only seven or eight percent. But as our use of the mobile Internet evolves, demand will increasingly shift elsewhere,” commented Senior analyst Mark Beccue.
ABI Research reveals that the Apple app store will continue to reign supreme in this particular field. It also appears that the years following the peak will see a slow decline in smartphone download rates from such app stores. Mark Beccue believes that the sophistication of mobile web is increasing and hence subscribers will rather want to employ the functionality on mobile websites than on simple dedicated apps.
Beccue further added, “We see two emerging trends: first, many applications (increasingly built on web standards) will migrate from app stores to regular websites, and for some sites you won’t need an app at all. In addition, more and more popular applications will be preloaded on mobile devices. Social networking apps in particular will be pre-loaded on new products.”
The company is referring to smartphones and other high-end devices which support an optimized mobile web experience. Besides the development envisioned, ABI Research also believes that another development may just alter that course. Mobile network operators could also increasingly launch their very own app stores which will unfurl even onto feature phones, offering access to many more consumers.