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January 28, 2010
Mobile application store downloads continue to show strong growth, led by Apple’s App Store. GetJar, the second-largest application store by cumulative downloads, announced it had reached the 750m mark in early 2010. Other app stores, such as Nokia’s Ovi Store, RIM’s App World and Microsoft’s Marketplace, are also enjoying increasing adoption.
Exhibit: GetJar and Apple’s App Store cumulative downloads, Q3 2008 to Q4 2009
Source: GetJar, Apple, Pyramid Research estimates
One of the key factors for the success of these stores is to be able to offer a wide range of applications. Apple’s success has attracted developers, and its store now offers more than 100,000 applications; GetJar has almost 60,000 as of this month.
Such a large amount of applications, however, makes it difficult for users to find what they want. For developers, discoverability is becoming a key issue — how to be noticed among all the different applications available. Such a situation would lend itself well to a search engine with a Google-type business model: Charge developers for sponsored links. Indeed, this is how Getjar makes some of its revenue, unlike Apple, which takes 30% from all paid downloads. With more application stores becoming available, particularly from operators, making it easy for users to find what they are looking for will be a key factor in ensuring they return.
— Jan ten Sythoff, Analyst at large
Related resources:
Global Mobile Data Forecast
Forecasts published quarterly
Updated on a quarterly basis, this Mobile Data Forecast product provides a complete picture of demand trends for the global market. The Excel output includes five years of historical data and five years of market projections for metrics such as penetration, mobile subscriptions (by type of package, by operator or MVNO and by network technology), users of specific data services (SMS, music, etc.), MOU, ARPS (by operator, by subscription type, by service, by application) and revenue (by messaging and non-messaging applications). The Forecast is based on extensive field research and uses a consistent methodology, aiming to capture the total spending on mobile data services on an aggregate global level. Data from these Forecasts is available online for subscribers to our DataTracker service.
Global Mobile Demand Forecast
Forecast published quarterly
Our Mobile Demand Forecast product provides a complete picture of demand trends globally. The Excel output includes five years of historical data and five years of market projections for metrics such as GDP, mobile penetration, subscriptions (by operator, type of package, technology), ARPS and total mobile service revenue (data and voice). The Forecast is based on extensive field research and uses a consistent methodology across all markets, aiming to capture the total spending, from an end-user perspective, on mobile communication services on an aggregate global level. Data from these Forecasts is available online for subscribers to our DataTracker service.
Room for Improvement: Young Europeans Pursue the Killer Mobile App
Telecom Insider published January 2010
The youth market is critical to telecom service providers. In 2008, there were 81.3m mobile subscribers between 13 and 24 years of age in the nine largest telecom markets in Europe. Due to the region’s increasing mobile penetration, we estimate this figure will reach 88.5m by 2014. We believe that the adoption of advanced mobile applications, such as mobile TV, music, mobile social networking and interactive multiplayer mobile games, will flourish in the youth markets of most Western European countries, while most Central and Eastern European markets will see lower adoption levels over the next several years. In this report, we explore the differences between the WE and CEE mobile youth markets to show that mobile application adoption patterns among young Europeans depend on their income levels, quality of user experience, the targeted offerings of operators as well as the penetration of new trends.
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Pyramid Points
