Apple takes more than 99% of mobile app market

Apple has a greater than 99% share of the mobile app market, according to new research.

Analyst firm Gartner has released new figures claiming there were 2.52 billion mobile app downloads in 2009. Apple itself claimed at the beginning of the month that there had been more than three billion downloads to date from its own App Store, having reported a figure of 500 million at the beginning of 2009.

That, as ArsTechnica first noted, means Apple alone accounted for 2.5 billion downloads in 2009, giving it a market share in excess of 99% (if both Gartner and Apple’s figures are accurate, of course).

Given that Gartner estimates that the 2009 mobile app market was worth more than $4.2 billion, Apple’s bottom line will have been boosted very significantly indeed by its mobile marketplace. Apple takes a 30% cut of the revenue generated from mobile apps sold via iTunes.

The good news for Apple – and its emerging rivals – is that Gartner estimates the explosive growth in the mobile app market will continue. The firm predicts there will be 4.5 billion app downloads in 2010, rising to 21.6 billion by 2013.

The only sour note for the mobile firms is that Gartner estimates eight out of ten of those apps will be free in 2010, with that figure rising to 87% by 2013.

“As smartphones grow in popularity and application stores become the focus for several players in the value chain, more consumers will experiment with application downloads,” claims Gartner’s research director, Stephanie Baghdassarian.

“Games remain the No. 1 application, and mobile shopping, social networking, utilities and productivity tools continue to grow and attract increasing amounts of money.”