A new report from ABI Research forecasts that mobile apps will top $30 billion in revenue by the end of the year. That total includes in-app purchases, advertising and subscriptions, as well as paid downloads. In 2011, total revenues for the mobile development industry were roughly half as much.
“Consumers’ high interest in apps has for [a] long time been obvious from download volumes,” said ABI’s Aapo Markkanen. But 2012, “will go down in history as the year when the economic side of the business finally took off,” he asserted.