Mobile app revenue to top $25 billion in next five years

Users' growing appetite for mobile applications looks set to boost the market's revenue to more than $25 billion by 2014.

So claims a new report from analyst Juniper Research, who claims that app stores will be a main driver of that growth over the next five years.

At present, one-of downloads are the main revenue generators, but that will change as in-app billing starts to gain in popularity until 2011, when it becomes the main breadwinner.

"Data revenue growth is dependent upon operators embracing policies which enable open access a policy which also involves facilitating app stores which compete with their on-portal offerings," said Dr Windsor Holden, the report's author, in a statement.

App stores are increasingly becoming a force to be reckoned with. While that's good news for mobile users, traditional content aggregators are feeling the squeeze. To survive in this new world, they have little option but to expand their content range and evolve their business models.

Just last week, Apple's App storehit the billion downloads milestone, further demonstrating its popularity.

And Google's contender to the iPhone throne, Android, also has its very own Android Market, which is also gaining favour among developers and users alike.