Leading App Stores see 11% increase in downloads

Our ever greater reliance on Smart Phone has been shown in the significant increase in app downloads in the first quarter of this year.

App downloads across the main four stores, Apple’s App Store, Google Play, Window’s Phone Store and Blackberry World, have grown by 11% in Q1 of 2013 worldwide, compared to the last quarter of 2012.

The jump is equating to $2.2 Billion in revenue as the four leading stores hit 13.4 billion downloads, according to Market Research firm Canalys.

Some of the strongest growth areas, have been in emerging markets, such as South Africa, Brazil and Indonesia, which has been helped by the ever growing smart phone penetration. However in the more mature mobile markets, like Western Europe, there has been an 8-10% increase in app downloads.

Apple has accounted for the largest portion of revenues worldwide at around 74%, whereas Google Play had the largest number of downloads at 51%.

The app story is going from strength to strength, with mobile device usage set to overtake laptop and desktop computers by 2015.