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Mobile apps stores had collectively distributed a cumulative total of 81 billion smartphone and tablet applications as of end-September 2012, 89% of which were downloaded from native storefronts that come with the device’s operating system.
According to ABI Research’s senior analyst Aapo Markkanen, storefronts that the operating system vendors provide as part of the OS experience dominate the landscape, and there is no evidence that this would change in the future. “A year ago it still looked like that, for example, mobile operators could find a viable business case in the curation of Android apps, but that opportunity evaporated once Google got its storefront act together. Today, it makes sense for operators to distribute apps only under special circumstances, such as the ones that we’re seeing in China,” he added.
Similarly, it’s unlikely that the universal, catch-all nature of app distribution would start breaking up into smaller niche storefronts, despite the fact that there is a certain demand for specialist stores, which on their end are better off positioning themselves as recommendation channels (rather than full-blown stores) due to high operational costs. The only exceptions are B2B apps and the consumer categories that the universal storefronts don’t want to be associated with, such as the adult content stores like Mikandi…
These findings come from ABI Research’s Mobile Application Markets Research Service from where you can get additional details if you fancy so.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
