A report from the research division of AppNation holds good news for the mobile development industry. It predicts that the app economy will double in the next four years, growing to $151 billion.
The firm considers paid apps, app-enabled purchases of goods and services, and in-app advertising all to be part of the “app economy.” Currently, app-enabled purchases of goods and services accounts for the largest chunk of the total, while paid downloads account for relatively little—less than $1 billion.
“Despite the massive popularity of apps and a saturated marketplace in the U.S., the overall growth rate in the app economy is still accelerating and will [continue to accelerate] until at least 2015,” said AppNation CEO Drew Ianni. “With the number of apps used per day by U.S. consumers still expanding, and as time spent on mobile devices shifts more to use apps versus other media, it is clear that there is still a lot of runway ahead of and across all key sectors of the app economy.”
