Apple grabbed 12 per cent of mobile apps market in 2008

So says Strategy Analytics

A new report from Strategy Analytics claims that Apple's App Store accounted for 12 per cent of the mobile applications market in 2008, in terms of download volumes.

Based on Apple's announcements that the App Store passed 300 million downloads on December 5th last year, and 500 million on January 16th, we're assuming it did over 400 million downloads in 2008 as a whole.

If that's 12 per cent of the mobile apps market, that means overall volumes of 3.33 billion mobile apps across all platforms during the year. Crumbs.

Anyway, Strategy Analytics makes the point that Apple's share of mobile apps revenues is lower than 12 per cent, due to the high number of free and low-priced apps on the App Store.

"The Apple App Store’s favorable revenue share for developers has created a tremendous buzz and fostered innovation," says analyst David MacQueen.

"This has excited consumers, inspiring an unprecedented volume of downloaded applications. The downside to this popularity is that with so many developers rushing on board, competition has become fierce and the majority of applications are downloaded for free, or at a very low cost."

However, like most in the industry, Strategy Analytics thinks the mobile operators are hitting back with their own App Store-like strategies.

"Apple's has won the initial skirmishes, but the war is far from over," says the company's VP David Kerr. For more information on Strategy Analytics's report, click here.

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