Android app downloads to double Apple's by 2016

ANDROID WILL DOMINATE the app market in five years' time when its volume of apps downloads will be nearly double those of Apple, analyst firm Ovum predicts.

According to Ovum, by 2016 there will be almost double the total number of Android phone app downloads than app downloads for the Iphone, at 21.8 billion and 11.6 billion respectively.

Ovum predicts that Android will steal dominance of total downloads from the Iphone for the first time this year with 8.1 billion downloads compared to Apple's 6 billion. Last year the two top players reached downloads of 1.4 billion and 2.7 billion respectively.

Global mobile phone app downloads will top 18 billion by the end of 2011, up 144 per cent from the 7.4 billion downloaded in 2010, Ovum said..

The firm said in its forecast that 2011 will see some of the strongest growth in downloads, which it predicts will top 45 billion in 2016.

Meanwhile, Ovum predicts that revenues from paid-for mobile phone apps will hit $3.7 billion in 2011, a growth of 92 per cent from the $1.95 billion the market achieved in 2010. It said that apps market revenue will grow to $7.7 billion in 2016.

Another, and we think more surprising shift is that Ovum predicts the rise of the Windows Phone operating system (OS), which it says will overtake the Blackberry OS for third place in both total number of downloads and revenues by 2015.

Ovum devices analyst Nick Dillon said, "Consumers' seemingly insatiable demand for mobile applications is set to continue this year, with downloads from app stores increasing around the world.

"The outlook for the longer term is also positive, with consumers set to continue to use apps to add new features to their phones and to access their favorite services on the go." µ