The income from Google Play application sales look as though they are primed to be twice as large this year.
This summer, Google Play’s mobile commerce successes raced forward as they exploded beyond the 50 billion app download mark, this summer, and this progress is only continuing onward, leading many to believe that this will be a doubly rewarding year for Android application revenues.
Developers have been working hard to both create and market quality applications.
Because of this, and a number of other factors, it looks as though the mobile commerce revenues from Android apps will be double, this year, what they were last year. The most recent reports from ABI Research have projected that the app revenues from Google Play alone will have broken the $6.8 billion mark by the close of 2013.
At the same time, the mobile commerce story at Google Play still hasn’t reached that of the Apple App Store.
The industry is still being lead by the mobile commerce app revenues over iOS devices, causing Android to continually play the catch up game regardless of its progress. At the same time, ABI stated that the current smartphone app market “will be Android’s most fruitful hunting ground compared to other devices.”
In fact, the ABI Research data has indicated that the app revenues from Android smartphone mobile commerce are expected to rise from 59.1 percent to 65.9 percent when compared to the revenues from iOS smartphone apps, over the period of the next full year.
Josh flood, an ABI senior analyst, explained that “Apple’s iOS still leads all the other mobile operating systems’ revenues by a significant margin; however, the greater number of Android smartphones in use is clawing back Apple’s lead in this market.” He pointed out that there will be a shift in the nature of this mobile commerce over throughout this year due to the popularity of Android devices and the massive growth in their shipments, particularly when compared to that of iOS devices. He also added that “This year, Android smartphones will ship by a factor of more than three-to-one to iPhones.”
Mobile commerce having an impact on online sales
IMRG, a retail industry association based in the United Kingdom, has released a new report concerning mobile commerce. The report shows that mobile shopping is becoming more common among consumers. This may be due to the fact that mobile commerce firms are beginning to take issues like security and efficiency more seriously. As mobile commerce platforms become more secure, consumers are becoming more likely to use these platforms. Efficient platforms also improve the shopping experience, further encouraging consumers to participate in mobile commerce in the future.
23% of online sales now come from mobile devices
The report shows that mobile commerce now accounts for 23% of online sales in the second quarter of 2013. This is an 11.6% increase over what mobile sales had been during the same period in the previous year. While sales are increasing, the report shows that mobile devices are primarily used to research products rather than purchase them outright. While this means that more consumers are using their mobile devices to enhance their shopping experience, it shows that many have yet to ease into the mobile commerce space.
Survey shows majority of smartphone owners have yet to make a mobile payment
A similar survey was recently released by market research firm Econsultancy that shows 51% of smartphone owners have not made a mobile payment with their device in the past six months. Many of these consumers have expressed interest in mobile commerce, but have chosen not to participate due to security concerns and other issues. Security is currently one of the most significant hurdles barring the aggressive progress of the mobile commerce sector.
Security proves to be a problematic issue for mobile commerce
As mobile commerce platforms become more secure, consumers are likely to show more interest in them. Mobile commerce has become popular for consumers and hackers alike, with the latter being drawn to the sector by the abundance of financial information that is readily available therein. Some platforms have been criticized for their lackluster security features, which have placed financial information at risk of theft and exploitation in the past, but this criticism has helped the mobile commerce sector become more aware of the threats that exist in the digital world.
