Optimistic Prediction For Future UK App Economy

The UK’s app economy will be worth no less than £31bn in a decade’s time, according to new research.

This particular report comes from Apple Annie, and was commissioned by the Financial Times. It showed that throughout 2014, the number of app downloads in the UK rose by 5% – but revenue shot up far more, to the tune of 30%.

Games remain the most popular download (with Candy Crush being the most popular overall), but there was a marked rise in folks downloading media apps for streaming video and music – as more people seek to be entertained on their smartphone and/or tablet.

Olivier Bernard, European vice-president of App Annie, told the FT: “Media apps do particularly well in the UK as well as apps that help stream video, TV and music. But there are starting to be more retailers using apps well, such as Just Eat, Tesco and Adidas.”

News apps have seen a healthy rise, too, with three papers managing to get into the top 10 non-gaming apps by revenue (The Telegraph, Times and Guardian).

Research firm Vision Mobile estimated that app revenue crested £4bn last year, and will hit £31bn by the time 2025 rolls around, as we already mentioned – an almost eight-fold increase.

Last month, App Annie announced the launch of a new Usage Intelligence system to provide further in-depth analytics on the top apps, such as usage frequency and retention levels. The system is currently being tested, and expected to go live in Q2 of this year.

Author: Darren Allan