Published on the 17/07/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
Appnation has announced the launch of a new research arm and its first report shows the increasing importance of video and emerging platforms such as cars and TVs in the app economy…
The thought leadership conference and expo that focuses on the global app economy has announced the launch of a new research arm, Appnation Research, which will regularly deliver “primary, secondary and custom research to the broader marketplace”.
Its first report, The State of the App Economy (July 2013), was produced in partnership with Reticle Research and Paradigm Sample with contributions from analyst Billy Pidgeon, and takes a hard look at today’s app economy and predicts it will double from US$72 billion to US$151 billion between 2013 and 2017.
“Our research demonstrates that despite the massive popularity of apps and a saturated marketplace in the US, the overall growth rate in the app economy is still accelerating and will be until at least 2015,” said Appnation’s founder and CEO, Drew Ianni.
“With the number of apps used per day by US consumers still expanding, and as time spent on mobile devices shifts more to using apps versus other media, it is clear that there is still a lot of runway ahead across all key sectors of the app economy. This is an incredibly exciting time as the US app economy experiences its first major growth explosion, but next year will be the time we expect to see the global app market take off.”
The report shows that by far, the largest contributor to this number will be app-enabled commerce, supplemented by forecasted revenue from downloads, in-app advertising and virtual goods. Email, web browsers, and social network apps are the most frequently used and the majority of mobile device owners under the age of 45 are using video apps at least a few times per week. The feature consumers most expect to use in smart TVs is being able to watch from their mobile devices. Meanwhile word of mouth is by far the most popular way that consumers say they discover apps.
Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research and co-author of the report, notes that “smartphones and tablets are driving the app economy today, but emerging platforms such as connected cars and smart TVs are providing new opportunities as well as raising thorny questions regarding how they will interface with apps consumers already have. For example, nearly 11 percent of U.S. consumers now have a vehicle that can support apps on a center console and three times as many consumers plan to purchase app-enabled TVs versus non-app-enabled TVs in the next six months.”
“Few people really grasp how big and pervasive the app economy is, and to date, there hasn’t been much clarity,” said David Berkowitz, CMO, MRY. “There is so much more to know than which Facebook or iPhone game is the most popular today.”
APPNATION’s State of The App Economy Report will be produced every six months with the next report scheduled for release in early December during next national conference of Appnation, called Appnation V.
