Apple takes 12% of mobile apps market

Application store trailblazer Apple managed to capture 12 per cent of the mobile apps market in 2008, according to figures released this week.

However, industry researcher Strategy Analytics, which carried out the study, said that the iPhone App Store’s value is significantly lower due to intense competition between developers which has pushed down application prices.

While the original App Store’s favourable revenue share for developers has created a tremendous buzz and fostered innovation, resulting in a high volume of downloaded applications, the downside to this popularity is that competition between developers has become fierce and the majority of applications are available for free or very low cost.

“Other handset manufacturers have reacted to Apple’s success by launching their own stores, but in the past it has been the carriers which dominated application distribution. Carriers are now changing tactics, hoping to re-attract developers-leading to a rapidly changing environment where each company category has its own strengths and weaknesses. Apple’s has won the initial skirmishes but the war is far from over,” said David Kerr, vice president of Strategy Analytics.

Indeed, Google has launched its own app store in the shape of Android Market, Nokia has one built on the Ovi platform, RIM has BlackBerry App World and Microsoft’s offering is due to come out later this year.

And the app store frenzy continued earlier this week as Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Java developer Sun Microsystems, revealed his own plans to get in on the game, on a much bigger scale.

Whereas Apple blazed the trail for the app store phenomenon, targeting around 21 million potential users today, Sun has its eyes on a much bigger prize.

The US software shop reckons Java is installed on around 2.1 billion mobile phones and other handheld devices, and is targeting an active market of about one billion Java users (other devices such as desktops included) around the world with its own app store – the Java Store.

And while the main focus of Sun’s Java store may be the desktop market, with its JavaFX platform, Sun also has a great interest in the mobile space. JavaFX Mobile is a scripting language designed for creating rich content and applications to run on Java-powered devices from mobile phones to Blu-ray Disc players, set top boxes, navigation devices and automobile dashboards. Interestingly enough, Vodafone, the world’s biggest carrier by revenues is a big supporter, and user, of the JavaFX technology in its own Live! services.