App Stores
Apps Stores are a product, but their proliferation is also a trend – in fact, it even made our list of top trends of 2010. In addition to stores for mobile operating systems (iTunes, Android Market, Ovi, Windows Phone Marketplace), other stores came into their own as well, including carrier app stores, third-party stores like GetJar, device app stores, tablet app stores and more. Some reports even indicate that certain segments of the market are switching from the browser to apps as their primary way to access the Web via mobile devices.
The trend prompted tech publication Wired to publish what may have been one of its most controversial articles this year: “The Web is Dead,” a catching headline that immediately prompted a visceral backlash from Web supporters. But some of the article’s content was actually right on: the Web is becoming further and further encapsulated into these mobile apps. It’s not dead, really. But the way we choose to access it from our phones is definitely changing.
Application stores have succeeded because they make “downloading and purchasing applications easy for consumers,” says Distimo, makers of an app store analytics tool for developers. “Combined with the increased capabilities of devices, these application stores accelerated the market in both
device sales and application downloads. The Apple App Store, for
example, grew from 141,331 applications in January 2010 to 323,859
applications in November 2010 (US).”
Forrester analyst Thomas Husson, also noted the large numbers of app downloads we’ve seen over the course of the year. “Willing to replicate Apple App Store success with its 7 billion cumulative downloads, a catalogue of 300,000 applications available, application stores flourished in 2010,” he said. “Android Market and GetJar both passed the 1 billion download market in 2010 while Nokia’s OVI is now delivering 3.5 million downloads a day.” But few stores offer publishers the reach they want, he cautioned.
Ouriel Ohayon, co-founder of app discovery platform AppsFire, agreed with that assessment. Although app stores “provide a deep ecosystem of content creation, monetization and distribution,” he said, “they fail in being efficient discovery platforms.”
But the app movement is far from over. CEO Ben Keighran of the app discovery service Chomp said that the trend of app stores “is linked to the next great technology movement, the ‘Appification’ of the Web.’ All the innovation currently going on is around this present day movement. The number of IOS apps downloaded per year is 5 billion. Compare that to the 17.1 billion Web searches a month and it’s clear that the demand for apps has exploded at a phenomenal rate.”
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