By the end of this year, revenues accumulated by the global mobile application market will pass the $30 billion milestone with that figure including money made from pay-per-downloads, in-app purchases, subscriptions and in-app advertisements. According to new Market Data from ABI Research, this is nearly double the amount that had been reached by end-2011.
The catalyst behind the quest of turning apps into money has been Apple, which came up with great distribution and billing mechanisms. Google is pushing hard with its Play Store that looks much more mature than the original Android Market. ABI estimates that Android developers’ share of the annual app revenues will be around one-third.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and RIM are fighting for the third position and have both made the monetization aspect a key piece in their platform strategies. This means that if Windows Phone 8 or BlackBerry 10 (or even both) manage to win the users’ hearts and minds, the threshold for developers to jump on the bandwagon won’t be high… As usual, you can get more information from ABI Research’s website.