No wonder that Apple is suing Amazon.com over the use of the name “Appstore.” There’s a lot of money at stake. A new report out this week from iSuppli indicated that combined revenue for the four major app stores is expected to nearly quadruple by 2014. Combined mobile app store revenue stood at $2.1 billion last year, with iSuppli projecting that revenue totals from mobile game downloads and other apps will reach $3.8 billion this year and mushroom to $8.3 billion in 2014.
And that’s just revenue among the four major stores representing Apple, Google, Nokia and RIM, with the report suggesting that Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace “conceivably could gain enough size and presence in the future to shake up the market.”
Apple, however, remains the top dog. It is expected to retain 60 percent of the market by 2014, driven in part by the success of the iPhone and iPad. (Until recently Apple was locked into one carrier in the U.S., but it recently expanded to Verizon which is opening up new market opportunities). Apple is expected to derive about $2.9 billion from its app store this year, up from $1.78 billion last year.
iSuppli projects that 18.1 billion applications will be downloaded this year, a number that will nearly double to 33 billion in 2014.
Here’s a look at the bar graph showing the growth in the coming years. Do you think Microsoft and Amazon.com can get a piece of the action?
