HerrKaiser schreef:
Will Free Decimate Freemium/Paid Mobile Apps?
* Mobile application downloads to reach five billion by 2014 from 2.3 billion in 2009
* iPhone app market will shrink starting with 2010
* Android app market will increase from 11% in 2009 to 23% in 2014
* The mobile app sales will decline by 2013, as competition will lead to downward pressure on application prices, and a greater proportion of “must-have” applications will begin to face competition from free or advertising-supported substitutes.
The report shows the GPS market as an example of what is going to happen in the future. Google's release of free navigation app in the Android market (with support for other mobile platforms in the future) has completely disrupted the GPS market. Not only it has sounded a death knell to specific purpose GPS devices, it has also turned the GPS mobile app market upside down. Before the Google thunder, seeing a potential in the iPhone marketplace, players like XRoad, TomTom and others released paid GPS apps for the iPhone. Though late, Mapquest jumped into the iPhone GPS app market with their subscription based iPhone app. With the proliferation of such apps in the marketplace, analysts were busy predicting the death of GPS devices and started talking about the market for GPS apps on general purpose devices like iPhone and other smartphones. However, the release of Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 changed the landscape upside down, predicting the elimination of GPS app market itself.
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