According to the latest projections by International Data Corporation (IDC), mobile app downloads are on track to grow from a relatively paltry 10.7 billion in 2010 to 182.7 billion in 2015.
IDC presented its research and projections in its study entitled “Worldwide and U.S. Mobile Applications, Storefronts, Developer, and In-App Advertising 2011-2015 Forecast: Emergence of Postdownload Business Models.”
But perhaps the most intriguing element of the IDC research report is the monetization trend behind the rampant app growth.
“While this number is impressive, the even bigger story behind the numbers is an impending shift away from the current, near-total reliance upon initial app download purchases as the primary focus of app monetization to a rapidly growing focus on in-app purchasing to fund business models,“ the report reads.
Hands down, the IDC reports, in-app purchase and in-app advertising will drive the growth of app development like no other factors in the coming four years.
Business models that seek to include in-app purchasing and in-app advertising must, by definition, further engage users, both within the app itself and over time. Together these dynamics are driving significant shifts in how apps are conceptualized, the integration of additional services and features like social networking and location to more deeply engage users, and how apps are actually developed in terms of incorporating in-app purchasing.
“App developers are not only focusing on ways to ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds, they are now focusing on longer term sustainability issues,” says Scott Ellison, vice president, Mobile and Connected Consumer Platforms. “The user sustainability trifecta of social networking, location, and the cloud are now increasingly being supported by the business model financial trifecta of application store purchases, in-app purchasing, and in-app advertising.”
For more information about the “Worldwide and U.S. Mobile Applications, Storefronts, Developer, and In-App Advertising 2011–2015 Forecast: Emergence of Postdownload Business Models,” click here.