The mobile application market is getting increasingly competitive. Amazon.com have reportedly been developing android-operated applications for a store in direct competition to Google’s Android Market. With news that PayPal will emerge as a key contestant for app payments, the competition is only likely to increase.
Attitudes for mobile usage are changing. The original app store, from Apple’s iPhone is seen as important not because of the revenue it raises, but because of the value it adds to the iPhone. Apple has previously stated that its iTunes app stores only make enough to break even, however this is likely to change. Smartphone usage is on the rise, with expectations that by 2012 there will be around 550 million users, up from only 172 million last year – this will increase the size of the app market nearly four-fold.
Additionally the content and services available through apps is increasing
in diversity and range, and many expect more residual income apps, such as
newspaper subscriptions, rather the just single-payment downloads.
The trend for many games and books to be sold as apps may have pushed Amazon in this direction, but they are very well suited to take on the market share for these kinds of apps in Android. Indeed Amazon has a ready chance to steal a large portion of the market, given that recent polls by IDC and Appcelerator found that 88 percent of app developers felt that Apple offered the better app stores, with a meagre 10 percent for Android.
