Here are additional key take-aways from the Gartner Mobile App Store Forecast that was published this week:
- Free applications are forecast to be 91% of all downloads in 2013, increasing to 94.5% by 2017. Paid-for downloads will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.22% from 2012 through 2017. The following table provided in the Mobile App Store Forecast announcement this week provides an overview of free and paid-for downloads by year.
- In-app purchases (IAP) are growing at a 27.83% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), increasing from 11% of revenue in 2012, projected to increase to 48% of app store revenue by 2017. IAP purchases are also projected to deliver 17% of store revenue in 2013, increasing to 48% in 2017. At the projected rate of growth in this forecast, it is reasonable to assume IAP will surpass paid-for and advertising-based approaches to downloading.
- 90% of global downloads in 2017 will be from Apple iOS and Google Android app stores. Gartner cites the large developer communities and expanding ecosystems for each of these mobile app stores as being catalysts of their growth.
- Average monthly downloads per Apple iOS device is projected to decline from 4.9 in 2013 to 3.9 in 2017. Gartner is also forecasting Google Android average monthly downloads to drop from 6.2 in 2013 to 5.8 in 2017.