Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner said that in terms of the apps that consumers are buying, 90 percent of the paid-for downloads cost less than $3 each. Shen said that free and lower-priced apps will drive the majority of downloads. Apps between 99 cents and $2.99 will account for 87.5 percent of paid-for downloads in 2012, and 96 percent by 2016.
Gartner expects Apple's App Store to have more than 21 billion downloads in 2012, which is an increase of 74 percent over 2011 and indicates continued strong demand for mobile app content. Brian Blau, research director at Gartner said that Apple's market share is the largest, considering its App Store accounts for 25 percent of available apps in all stores.
He thinks that demand for apps overall will still be dominated by Apple, Google and Microsoft. Shen said that Amazon has appealed to users with its strong brand, global presence and a good selection of high-quality content. She thinks that Facebook's recently launched App Centre, which supports mobile devices and desktops, will become a powerful competitor.
Gartner sees a future for free apps
Will be nearly 90 per cent of downloads