App Annie Predicts a Bright Future for the App Economy

Mobile app developers, if you thought you picked the right field now, just wait a few years. Apps are already so entrenched into our lifestyles that it’s easy to forget that there are still millions and millions of people around the world who have not made the smartphone leap. The already thriving app economy is only going to continue to boom. As it stands today, the worldwide app market is worth an impressive $1.3 trillion. That figure takes into account the three main areas of monetization: app stores, mobile commerce, and in-app advertising. App Annie, the leading analyst firm, released a report last week that predicts a 380% increase in the worth of the app economy by 2021, bringing the global total to a whooping $6.3 trillion.

What’s going to drive this extreme growth? App Annie forecasts that by 2021, the number of people with smartphones will almost double as the populations of developing nations go mobile. The firm also predicts that mobile users will be spending more time with apps — and with that additional time, they will be spending more money too. Mobile app developers may think that we live our lives on our phones already, and they are not wrong: mobile users spent 1.6 trillion hours using apps in 2016. But App Annie expects that number to be closer to 3.5 trillion hours by 2021.

App Annie believes that mobile commerce will continue to skyrocket as American consumers follow the lead of mobile users in China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, who are dropping significantly more money in the app economy. New York City mobile app developers can look forward to a day when American consumers are spending huge chunks of disposable income in the app market, especially as more Americans start using apps to purchase groceries and do their banking. The app market is already explosive, but this is just the beginning.