Forecast: App Economy Will Double by 2017

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Market researchers at App Nation are predicting that the “app economy” will roughly double in the next four years, reaching $151 billion by 2017. However, paid downloads account for a very small portion of that total.

MobileMarketing’s Kirsty Styles reported, “The first report from Appnation’s research division has forecasted that app-enabled commerce will be the largest contributor to a 110 per cent growth in the US app economy between 2013 and 2017. The market will be worth $151bn to the US economy in four years, the report said.”

BizReport quoted AppNation founder and CEO, Drew Ianni, who said, “Our research demonstrates that despite the massive popularity of apps and a saturated marketplace in the U.S., the overall growth rate in the app economy is still accelerating and will be until at least 2015. With the number of apps used per day by U.S. 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 of across all key sectors of the app economy. This is an incredibly exciting time as the U.S. 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.”

Computerworld’s Matt Hamblen noted, “According to the research firm, the largest segment of the so-called app economy is app-enabled sales of physical goods and services, which accounted for about $45 billion of the nearly $60 billion total at the start of 2013. By the middle of this year, the $60 billion total had reached about $72 billion, and that figure is expected to more than double to $151 billion in 2017. AppNation said paid app downloads account for just a sliver of the total. Less than $1 billion of this year’s app-related revenue comes from downloads, and revenue from downloads is projected to just slightly surpass the $1 billion mark in 2017.”

In the press release, AppNation’s Ross Rubin stated, “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.”