ABI forecast: App store downloads to peak in 2013

While anticipating smartphone downloads from mobile application storefronts will continue growing in the immediate future, a new ABI Research forecast contends app store downloads will peak in 2013, declining in the years to follow as consumer attention shifts to the mobile web. ABI notes that smartphone users downloaded roughly 2.4 billion applications from app stores in 2009, and believes that number will close in on 7 billion by 2013; although total downloads from all sources are expected to continue growing past 2013, ABI says consumers will instead embrace the functionality of increasingly sophisticated mobile websites over dedicated apps.

"App stores aren't going away: following the 2013 peak in demand, the number of downloads in 2015 will have decreased only seven or eight percent," said ABI senior analyst Mark Beccue in a prepared statement. "We see two emerging trends: first, many applications (increasingly built on web standards) will migrate from app stores to regular websites, and for some sites you won't need an app at all. In addition, more and more popular applications will be preloaded on mobile devices. Social networking apps in particular will be preloaded on new products."

For more on the ABI forecast:
- read this release

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