Forecast: Mobile app revenues to exceed $25B by 2014

Direct and indirect revenues from mobile applications are expected to exceed $25 billion by 2014 according to a new forecast issued by analyst firm Juniper Research, which credits the growth to the introduction of new app stores catering to high-end smartphones as well as mass-market handsets. Juniper contends that while the vast majority of app revenues are currently accrued via one-off downloads, the introduction of in-app billing to enable incremental revenues from additional mobile content will translate to value-added services providing the bulk of revenues by 2011. Games will remain the largest category in terms of overall mobile app downloads and revenues, although multimedia and entertainment apps will enjoy the greatest share of value-added service revenues from 2009 on.

Although the Juniper report expects many Tier 1 operators to launch their own app storefronts in an effort to maintain content revenue share, the firm argues carriers will derive greater data revenue benefits via app usage, not the retail price of apps and content--assuming operators reject the walled garden approach, that is. "Data revenue growth is dependent upon operators embracing policies which enable open access--a policy which also involves facilitating app stores which compete with their on-portal offerings," said report author Dr. Windsor Holden in a prepared statement. Juniper adds that operators, developers and content providers must not ignore traditional app and content distribution and monetization channels in their efforts to reach the smartphone demographic.

For more on the Juniper forecast:
- read this release

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