SUCCESSFUL SMART PHONE manufacturers must accommodate seven core applications in their next-generation handset designs.
Know as the ‘Big Seven’, these applications include email, games, social networking, instant messaging, mapping and directions, music and radio, and weather. Combined, the apps will account for 7 billion downloads worldwide in 2014, according to a new report from In-Stat called Worldwide Smartphone Application Market: Revenues and Downloads.
“In-Stat tracks 26 different categories of smart phone applications,” said VP of research, Frank Dickson. “A designer can optimize a handset for any one of the application categories. However, it’s the big seven applications that phone designers need to accommodate in each and every device.”
Other findings include:
– The tsunami of mobile applications has created a hyper-competitive market putting significant pressure on prices and margins;
– Productivity applications such as mapping, business and enterprise applications, plus phone tools and utilities generate 59% of all smart phone application revenue;
– The number of Android apps downloaded is growing at the fastest rate, however, Apple applications still dominate both free and paid downloads. 2012 will mark the last of the Palm OS application downloads.
– The three applications with the highest compound annual growth rates through 2014 will be micro blogging, mobile banking and VoIP.
