In its latest report, Juniper Research forecasts that more than $75 billion will be spent on consumer apps by 2017. This massive growth will be mainly driven by in-app purchases, and the impact of new monetization models used by developers and storefronts.
The research firm predicts that Microsoft and Amazon will be adding new features to their app stores such as better search and discovery tools, to compete with Apple’s and Google’s services.
The report also found that by 2017, the proportion of revenue accrued from apps paid for at the point of download would fall to almost a quarter of the $75 billion total. This presents a challenge for developers who were and will continue experimenting with other revenue models like advertising and in-app purchases.
Tablet owners will be keen to spend money on apps with Juniper predicting that the amount of revenue spent by tablet owners will increase from $7.8 billion this year to $26.6 billion in 2017.
Finally, games will continue seeing the greatest share of consumer spend, taking 32% of the total revenues in 2017.