Mobile app downloads to hit 50 bln by 2012

Boosted by the smartphone wars and tablet devices from RIM, Samsung, Dell, Acer, Sharp and others, the number of mobile application downloads is predicted to rise to almost 50 billion by 2012, according to a report from Chetan Sharma. Summations of the daily download figures claimed by major OEM application store providers suggest that this year downloads are already close to 20 million applications every day. Expectations for in-application payments are high, with many people in the industry seeing mobile applications as the catalyst for micro-charging model. But in-application billing adoption has been slower than predicted, according to Bango. It reports that less than 5 percent of payments billed through its mobile payments platform in this year were of this in-application variety. One reason has been the application stores' technical limitations. Most don't offer the functionality to enable payments from within the application. But this limitation is starting to be lifted as application stores experiment to drive more revenue. RIM announced in September in-application billing support in early 2011. The platform battle next year will focus on developers as much as users, who will need to determine which of the application platforms to prioritise for development and distribution, according to Bango. Those that deliver most revenue will capture greatest mind-share. For 2011 in-application charging will grow over 600 percent to account for close to 30 percent of all mobile application payments. The forecast is based on end of year trends from leading developers in the games, music and broadcasting segments. Near-term the developers and publishers who monetise regular use of the application streamed video and audio, games, news and alerts will capitalise on in-application payment features. Applications will look for the broadband connection and bill from within the application based on usage. The year 2011 will see many more such innovations and experimentation with in-application revenue models from the mainstream media and content publishers.