Berg Insight predicts 98 billion mobile app downloads in 2015

2015 is looking to be a bumper year for the mobile gaming industry, should the plethora of projections based on it come to fruition.

Generator Research recently predicted a smartphone userbase of 1.5 billion people by 2015, while Credit Suiss believes that $481 a year will be spent by middle class Americans on Apple products by the same time.

Berg Insights, who somewhat optimistically predicted that the number of smartphone users would rise to 2.8 billion by 2015, has revealed its prediction that 98 billion mobile apps will be downloaded then.

This would represent a compound growth rate of 56.6 percent between 2010 and 2015.

At the end of 2010, Berg Insights put the total revenues from paid applications, in-app purchases and subscription services at €1.6 billion (approx $2.1 billion).

Further, it estimates that yearly growth rate will rise by 40.7 percent to reach €8.8 billion (approx £12 billion) in 2015.

"Even though the download numbers will increase during the forecast period, most apps are free to download and app monetisation will be a challenge for developers," said senior analyst Johan Svanberg.

"Free to download monetisation strategies such as in-app advertising and in-app purchasing will be increasingly important. This is especially true in the APAC region, which will account for over 40 percent of all mobile app downloads in 2015."

Android and Windows Phone are expected to take second and third positions respectively, after first placed Apple, as the top monetisation earners of the period.

[source: Berg Insight (PDF)]