IDC has put some numbers on the booming mobile apps market.
It says users downloaded 10.9 billion apps this year, and expects that to rise to 76.9 billion in 2014 – around 11 apps each for every man, woman and child.
It forecasts that worldwide mobile apps revenues will hit $35 billion in that year.
Since the debut of the iPhone more than three years ago, application developers have churned out more than 300,000 mobile apps.
This year apps made the leap from the smartphone to the tablets, and from 2011 will find their way into connected TVs and across the connected home, IDC says.
One of the most striking features about mobile apps “has been the ‘appification’ of broad categories of interactions and functions,” IDC notes.
“Apps can turn a smartphone into a physical trainer that keeps track of exercise levels and even your heartbeat, help cook a meal by walking you through the meal prep and then tell you when it is fully cooked, monitor your driving and offer tips to increase gas mileage,” it said.
“Mobile app developers will 'appify' just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds,” says Scott Ellison, vice president, IDC Mobile and Wireless research.
“The extension of mobile apps to every aspect of our personal and business lives will be one of the hallmarks of the new decade.”
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