Flurry's director of sales Simon Podd believes we could be at the start of "the biggest industrial revolution we've seen in our lifetime."

Speaking at Gamelab 2012 in Barcelona, Podd highlighted what he described as an "astronomical growth in smartphone usage", citing statistics gathered by his company's free mobile app analytics system Flurry.

Knowledge in the numbers

According to Podd, Flurry tracks 350 billion events every month – the equivalent of six-times more data than Twitter.

From its tracking pool of 185,000 apps and 70,000 developers, the system has recorded a notable increase in the activation and use of mobile apps.

App sessions are also on the increase, with November's figure of 20 billion per month rocketing to an impressive 36 billion today.

Huge potential

Podd also pointed out the impact which the mobile handset market has had on internet use, revealing that, out of 2.3 billion internet users worldwide, 1.2 billion are now accessing the web from their smartphone.

With a predicted 1.5 billion potential handset users still up for grabs, he describes the increase in competition between indie developers, all vying for a place in gradually maturing, but progressively less-open market.

"The opportunities are increasing, but you're going to see more people entering the market," Podd hypothesised.

"It's a balance of hope and fear, but it's definitely an exciting place to be."