By 2018 Free Apps Will Rule The Market And Paid Ones Will Be Hammered

Gartner is out with another report on mobile apps, which shows a downward trend for paid apps. The report suggests that by 2017 94.5% of downloads will comprise of free apps. This will go up further by 2018. The study also shows that people search for good and the best apps on various lists other than the ones found on an app stores. People are not going through the thousands of apps that are available on application stores, but are going by recommendation engines, social, friend’s recommendations and advertising.

Most paid applications are not generating profits and many are building apps just to get brand recognition. In the coming years this might just turn into a disaster for the currently exploding apps market. Apple just posted huge revenue that was generated by selling apps from their app store. If people stop buying apps then the mobile app stores might just come spiralling down (as far as profits are concerned).

The freemium model has been working for lot of app and mobile game developers. Here users get free download and usage, but to unlock levels or certain parts of the app they need to pay a small sum. It is an interesting mode as the developers hook the consumers by showing them a free model and once they are addicted to it, they charge money for them to get to new levels or to unlock new features. This method is quite popular and providers such as whatsapp and Disney games are using it quite brilliantly.

There are thousands of app developers, many of them residing in India, who are following the freemium or completely free methods. With each passing day the apps are becoming better and better, and the bar is getting higher. With the line between a good free app and a paid one diminishing rapidly, the developers need to think over what they want to put a price on and what should be kept free.

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