Forrester forecast an Apps market of $38 billion by 2015

With the exponential growth in the smartphone and tablet sales, applications should reach $38 billion by 2015. The market exists only since four years, with the launch of the iPhone. They are competing now with Google’s Android Market, Microsoft’s Apps Marketplace, BlackBerry’s App Place and HP’s Palm App Catalog. Apple’s iOS platform, offers apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, has around 350,000 apps. In 2010, mobile applications accounted for $1.7 billion in revenue globally. Mobile apps downloads jumped from 300 million in 2009 to 5 billion in 2010.

Apps are forecasted to become more ubiquitous like the GPS application on smartphones, or the new Near-field communication technology. By 2015, app sales for tablet devices alone are expected to reach $8.1 billion — way up from the roughly $300 million generated by tablet apps in 2010.

Forrester predict also that apps will push a new era of cloud computing, where content is stored online and accessible across multiple devices at any given time. Apple should lose important market share in apps in future years, but will still experience decent growth in apps revenues.

Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com