App Annie has recently published a series of predictions for the app economy in 2018.
Tens of thousands of apps arrive in the app store every month, with roughly 50,000 in the iOS App Store and over 150,000 in Google Play in October 2017 alone.
The first main prediction the company made was that: “Consumer app store spend will surpass the $100 billion mark.”
The company believes that app monetization is growing, diversifying and becoming more sophisticated – which will result in an increased growth rate in worldwide consumer spend across all mobile app stores.
App Annie have projected a 30% increase year over year, hitting $110 billion this year.
The second main predication was: “App store curation will drive a surge in in-app purchase (IAP) revenue.”
In 2017, Apple completely redesigned its store and Google redesigned the ‘Editors’ Choice’ section of Google Play to incorporate Android Excellence Collections.
App Annie has suggested that the companies have added a human element to its apps, they predict that leisure time apps will benefit the most as they are more likely to attract more consumers as they browse.
The final main predication App Annie made for 2018 was: “Improvements in discoverability will lead to increased revenues for indie devs.”
The app stores’ new emphasis on editorial content now means consumers can find and download good quality apps built by indie developers a lot more easily on both Apple and Google. This will mean indie devs will benefit from more in-app purchases and ad revenue, which can then build more quality apps.
Read the full report here.