Research, published this week shows that 48 billion application downloads could take place by 2015.
The research, completed by Researcher In-Stat says that App store downloads are continually on the increase, thanks to the popularity of Apple's App Store and the Android Market. Both stores offer 425,000 and 200,000 programs respectively.
A lot of the Apple profits come from their App Store, which has experienced 15 billion downloads over the last three years. Google are growing quickly, and their last report shows just under 5 billion application downloads from the Android Market.
The market for software via these stores is immense and if the growth continues as planned, it could be very lucrative for many companies and organisations to target this market, which has an audience of well over 300 million people. Apple alone have paid out $2.5 billion to app developers in the last three years alone.
Amy Cravens, an In Stat Analyst said “Largely spurred by the launch of the iPhone, mobile applications have been a strong growth market over the past several years. The number of apps available has exploded, which has sparked an increasing rate of downloads.”
Kitguru says: In Stat forecast that revenues from app downloads alone will reach $29 billion by 2015.