Distimo report highlights growth of in-app billing

Distimo, the leading mobile app analytics company, has today released its reports examining the movers and shakers for the year in each of the major mobile app stores across several territories. The reports contain a huge amount of data from the whole year covering Apple's App stores for the iPhone and iPad, Android marketplace, BlackBerry's App World, Windows Phone Marketplace, Nokia Ovi Store, and the Amazon Appstore.

The key findings from the reports are:

1. In all appstores the proportion of free applications surged significantly over the past year. In most appstores the average price of all apps decreased and the most popular applications are also cheaper than last year.

2. As publishers appear to be increasingly shunning one-off fees for their apps, in-app purchases in particular have emerged from several business models as the method of choice for app monetization.

3. The reports identify significant regional variations in download volumes with some regions exhibiting spectacular growth, while in other markets in-app purchases have take the fore as the main monetization method. The full reports contain complete details on download volumes and revenue details for all regions.

To download the reports in full, head over to the Distimo website - one report costs €699 for a single user license with concessions available for purchasing multiple territory reports.

MEF members can enjoy 15% off the cost of each - contact us for more information.

MEF Responds to GetJar Study

Yesterday, a study from GetJar and Chetan Sharma Consulting predicted that mobile apps downloads will increase from more than 7bn downloads in 2009 to 50bn in 2012. It also projected that the global mobile application economy will be worth $17.5bn in 2012, more than CD sales, which it predicts will reach $13.83bn. What’s more, Google announced that the number of mobile apps on Android Marketplace have doubled to 30,000 in the past three months.

Here, Rimma Perelmuter, Executive Director of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), the global association of the mobile media industry, comments:

“The accelerating growth of the Android Marketplace and numerous apps stores confirms the rise of applications as a whole new medium for media content which is engaging and entertaining mobile consumers. The recent forecasts on the rise of the apps economy are supported by investment patterns and industry sentiment revealed in MEF’s Annual Business Confidence Index, which found that 21% of mobile entertainment revenues streams are predicted to come from mobile apps in the next quarter.

At the same time, numerous issues must be addressed including sustainable business models, fragmentation and variance amongst handsets and app stores, and transparency around in-app billing. MEF is working with the industry to address these opportunities and challenges in order for the mobile apps economy to fulfill its full potential. ”