Consumer Mobile App Revenues to Pass $50 billion by 2016

Juniper Research has projected that annual revenues from consumer mobile applications will approach $52 billion by 2016 as consumer smart phone adoption accelerates in tandem with the emergence of a mass tablet market. The forecast might raise some pertinent questions.


Just what will that new revenue stream indicate about the emerging role of tablets in the device universe, and what, in turn, tablet apps might mean for the devices we know as "personal computers." Much will hinge on how that new revenue is created. Some will consist of content purchases. Some will be provided by in-app purchases of digital and physical goods. Some of the revenue will come from advertising and promotion. Other revenue will be generated by app sales (software purchases). 


Some of those shifts will affect the way PCs are designed and used, more than the others. Kip Cassino, Borrell and Associates EVP argues that by 2016, most computers available to consumers are going to look and act just like today’s iPhones and iPads. That means they will be able to communicate like cell phones, they will all have built-in GPS, and they will feature cameras and touch-screen interfaces. 


Most importantly, Cassino argues, they will depend on apps instead of expensive, bundled software  In fact, what we now call computers will have largely faded from the scene, except for some business and gaming applications. Personal computers will be replaced by mobile devices of one sort or another, Cassino argues. 


You don't have to agree with the time frame to agree with the direction of the user experience Cassino describes.