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Report: In-app purchases to overtake download revenues by 2013

Here's an interesting report from Juniper Research. According to their work, mobile app revenues will reportedly grow from the current US $6 billion to a whopping $11 billion by 2015. And the majority of that revenue will come not from the standard download fee, but instead from in-app purchases, according to Juniper. The firm claims that in-app purchase revenue will top one-off download fees by 2013. That seems hard to believe, given my current anecdotal usage, but there's no question that in-app purchases are growing by leaps and bounds as a form of sizable revenue for app developers.

Jupiter's report also says that the biggest problem facing mobile app growth is just plain discovery -- with so many apps out there, it's hard for users to find new apps that they like, so what you tend to see is clumps of apps getting popular rather than users going out and finding their own favorites. Services like OpenFeint and Game Center have certainly helped to share information about new apps, and of course sites like ours try to spotlight as many apps as we can. But with a store full of hundreds of thousands of apps in it, it's tough to let more than a few hundred really shine. Maybe as we move forward, developers and Apple will come up with better solutions to help do that.

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Here's an interesting report from Juniper Research. According to their work, mobile app revenues will reportedly grow from the current US...
 

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Mezrow

I totally believe devs are making a killing on in-app purchases--they are from me! Until recently, I'd only done it once to get an extra database for an astronomy app. That is, until I got hooked on a free game for which optional power charges are available. And started spending way too much time trying to level up, acquire XP, etc. I used to think people who did this were complete chumps. Okay, they still are, including me.

December 01 2010 at 1:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jauhari

I never do, in app purchases

December 01 2010 at 10:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rdkrauss

Is anyone else having trouble when trying to make an in app purchase?

I never used to have this problem, but as of yesterday, when I try to purchase an in app upgrade, I get an Error message saying "Cannot Connect to iTunes Store". Never happened before, not sure why it is happening now.

Tried resetting Network Settings....did not work.

Thoughts????

November 30 2010 at 9:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to rdkrauss's comment
rdkrauss

I was connected. I can download apps without problems. I can even update apps without problems. I just cannot purchase any in app upgrades.

December 01 2010 at 8:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
lmasanti

We'll see not only ‘Ping for Music,’ but also ‘Ping for Movies,’ ‘Ping for TV shows,’ ‘Ping for Books,’ ‘Ping for iOS Apps,’ ‘Ping for Mac Apps,’ ‘Ping for Games’... and at the end, ‘One Ping to Rule them all!’

November 30 2010 at 8:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Almo

Gah, I hate in-app purchases! :(

November 30 2010 at 8:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Almo's comment
Ken

Hi there,
Just curious as to what it is about in app purchasing that makes you Hate it?

Cheers,
Ken

December 01 2010 at 7:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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