Apple, Android and smartphones will drive 48 billion app downloads

BY THE YEAR 2015 some 48 billion applications will have been downloaded to people's phones, suggesting that, well, people are downloading a lot of apps.

The number comes from the research firm In Stat, which said the introduction of smartphones, perhaps more specifically those with touchscreens, along with the increased usability of apps, will help drive consumption.

"The prevalence of handset touchscreens is a significant development impacting the mobile applications market," said Amy Cravens, an In Stat senior analyst. "The projected rapid penetration of touchscreen-enabled devices will allow more users to easily interact with mobile applications, thereby driving growth. Increased on-board memory capacity will also lead to a better user experience."

In Stat said that this year touchscreen handsets are likely to account for 90 per cent of all shipped smartphones and will, in the next few years, account for all shipments.

Although handy and seemingly ubiquitous, smartphones will be used by around 45 per cent of phone users by 2015, which is a fair increase above the 23 per cent that currently use smartphones.

Apple and Android users are expected to be the largest app consumers, yand In Stat added that, for example, they are far more likely than Blackberry users to download additional mobile software.

This is hardly surprising. Apple has about half a million approved applications on its app store and about ten billion downloads. Although Android can't boast the same numbers, a small proportion of its apps have been downloaded a surprising number of times. µ