Mobile apps could be bigger than internet

The chief executive of the mobile application store Getjar, Ilja Laurs has stated his belief that apps will be “as big if not bigger than the internet.”

Speaking at San Fransisco’s MobileBeat conference, Laurs predicted that they will peak this year at around 100,000 available apps, before seeing a gradual decline in development.

“The full blossom will come in ten years and mobile apps will become as popular as websites are today with consumers," Laurs told the BBC.

Although mobile application development is currently seeing something of a boom, with 1.5 billion downloads made from Apple’s App Store, it is likely to decline in the future due to the low returns from the segment.

“The ratio of those developers who will fail is about 90%; they will simply not make a return on their investment or make a good enough living at this,” commented Laurs.

The executive director of the Symbian Foundation, Lee Williams speculated on the type of app that will push the market forward: “The type of application you will see will help enrich your life in some way. It will let you do your image sharing, your social networking and establish presence with your friends, colleagues and family in completely new ways – which is really what mobile applications are all about.”