Potential $6 billion market for apps in 2010

Consumers are expected to part with some $6.2 billion purchasing applications for mobile phones in 2010.

That represents a big leap from the 2009 figure of $4.2 billion revenue.

This data comes from research firm Gartner, which is forecasting something in the order of 4.5 billion app downloads this year.

Interestingly, the firm reckons that eight out of ten of those apps will be freebies, and is urging developers to consider advertising or other alternative business models, as opposed to a straight fee.

Extrapolating its predictions, Gartner believes that by 2013 the mobile app market will have expanded hugely to the tune of $29.5 billion.

Games are expected to do very well on mobiles, too. Stephanie Baghdassarian, Research Director at Gartner commented: “As smartphones grow in popularity and application stores become the focus for several players in the value chain, more consumers will experiment with application downloads.”

“Games remain the No. 1 application, and mobile shopping, social networking, utilities and productivity tools continue to grow and attract increasing amounts of money.”