Over 32 billion apps are expected to be downloaded from Google’s Play Store this year. The data comes from a report by a leading market research firm, ABI Research. According to the report, nearly 19 billion apps will be downloaded from Apple’s iTunes App Store. Together, these account for nearly 91 percent of the total number of apps that will be downloaded this year, which totals at nearly 56 billion. This means that Android apps account for 58% and iPhone apps account for 33% of the total expected app downloads in 2013.
At third position is Windows Phone, surpassing Blackberry. The platform is expect to have over 2.2 billion app downloads from its app store, accounting for merely 4 percent of the market. Further down is BlackBerry, with 1.7 billion downloads, making up just 3 percent of the total. This data points to the fact that Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform is indeed gaining some momentum in the apps sphere, as the number of app downloads in a way corresponds to the overall market share of the platform.
The picture is considerably different in the case of tablets. App downloads on Apple’s iPad(s) will amount to over 10 billion of the total 14 billion expected downloads. This means that iPad apps constitute 75 percent of app downloads on tablets. Android apps come second with 2.4 billion app downloads and in third position are downloads on Amazon’s Kindle, which account for around 0.6 billion apps. Also making an appearance in the list is Microsoft, with tablet devices featuring both Windows 8 RT and Pro expected to see nearly 0.3 billion apps downloaded this year.
Overall, apps on the Android platform account for half of the apps set to be downloaded this year, with 35 billion apps expected to be downloaded on smartphones and tablets. Android’s issues with fragmentation might actually be helping it in contributing to such a large share, though there is much room for improvement in the tablet segment. Apple’s iOS is neck on neck with nearly 42 percent of the total expected downloads across the iPhone(s) and iPad(s).
These two platforms have a significant developer base contributing new apps and updating pre-existing ones, which has made it very difficult for new entrants like Microsoft and Amazon to grab significant market share. Google will have to focus on tablet-optimized apps if it wants to gain in the tablet app sphere, where the iPad is the developers’ favorite at the moment.
March 10, 2013 at 10:30 am
Downloaded