Smart phone apps due to explode in 2011
According to Citibank’s US Internet Stock 2011 Playbook (released on 30 December 2010) Apple will generate as much as $2 billion in gross app revenue in 2011. That’s about the same size as Citibank’s estimate for the entire online video advertising market that year!
In case you don’t know how most app marketplaces work the market provider (Apple in this case) set up the marketplace infrastructure so developers can upload their apps to be approved, then sold through the marketplace. For providing this marketplace (with plenty of keen shoppers trawling through too) the marketplace provider keeps 30% of the app fee.
So that has Apple on track to gross a massive $600m in 2011, an example of another tremendous strategic first-mover advantage by Apple.
| Apps | Downloads | Phones in market | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | 350,000 | 10bn | 160m |
| Android | 230,000 | 2.7bn | 44m |
| Windows 7 | 6,781 | unknown | 2m |
| Nokia | 45,000 | 710m | 675m |
| BlackBerry | 16,121 | 1m per day | 46m |
The approximate app and smartphone marketshare at the moment clearly shows Microsoft, BlackBerry and Nokia all slow off the mark – well behind Apple’s 350,000 apps:
Google’s Android is the only one threatening Apple’s iPhones , though Microsoft seemed to have totally abandoned anything below Windows 7 (about 500 apps for Windows 6/6.5) and pushed ahead straightaway on the awesome Windows 7 platform. In 2011 Android will probably surpass Apple in Apps and maybe even phones in the market.
The report also cites Gartner’s estimates that the total app market was around $4 billion in 2010 and should grow to a whopping $27 billion by 2013. The biggest driver is smart phone penetration, the impact of which Citibank compares to the spread of broadband on the computer-based Internet in the early 2000s. Globally, smart phone unit sales grew 53% in 2010, and Citibank expects it to grow 29% in 2011 and stay in the mid-20% growth range through 2013.
If you are looking for new and cool iPhone apps, here are the top apps for 2010 accordingly TechCrunch . And Wired Magazine’s top 19 iPhone and iPad apps for 2010.
