China Leads Growth in App Downloads, Lags in Revenue, Says Juniper

The number of apps downloaded to smartphones and tablets is expected to grow roughly 28 percent this year to over 235 billion, said a Juniper Research report. Fueling the projected rise is “phenomenal growth” in downloads in the Chinese market, which last year accounted for six in 10 downloads worldwide, said Juniper. Local digital storefronts have benefited from Google’s near exclusion from the China market, said Juniper, and search engine company Baidu has been the primary beneficiary. Baidu’s app store, which is effectively integrated into the search engine, has passed iTunes to become the second-largest app store globally in download volume, said Juniper. While five of the top seven app stores in download volume are China-based, China still lags the U.S. and Japan in app revenue, it said. Revenue per download is nine times higher in the U.S. and 14 times higher in Japan, said the researcher. Games are the most mature and lucrative app sector and offer “significant scope for growth” in both developed and developing markets, said Juniper, citing a migration from handheld game consoles to mobile devices and “continued social gaming growth.” Adoption and monetization of multimedia apps is likely to be fueled further by network operators bundling multimedia applications with customer subscriptions, it said. “Broadcasters are now offering distinct and bolt-on mobile packages, a trend which will gain further impetus as customers migrate to larger screen phablet devices,” said analyst Windsor Holden.