Apple App Store Purchases to Grow 61% in 2011

According to one industry analyst, digital purchases from Apple's App Store should increase 61 per cent this year. It's also expected that the average iOS device owner will purchase and download 83 apps in 2011.

The predictions come to us from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who provided them in a letter to investors earlier this week. (Source: time.com)

"We believe this trend points to the increasing importance of an app store with a broad selection of tested apps to drive device sales," Munster noted. "Smartphone users are showing an increasing appetite to use apps to add features to their phones, and iOS has the leading app ecosystem." (Source: pcmag.com)

Prices Expected to Increase with Downloads

Munster also predicts that the price of each app will also increase. Already the difference between 2011 and 2010 is visible, with app prices rising approximately 14 per cent over last year.

"After the initial race to the bottom in App Store pricing, we are seeing users pay up to add features and games to their iOS devices," Munster said. (Source: cnn.com)

For the record, the average app price stands at about $1.44, although more than four in every five apps are free.

Tablet Downloads the New Frontier

The report will be welcome news for Apple, which last week announced that its App Store had surpassed the 15-billion download plateau. Currently, users can find 425,000 apps in an App Store available to 90 different countries.

The new frontier for apps may be those specifically targeted at tablet devices. Last week, analysts at In-Stat reported their expectation that total worldwide app downloads for these kinds of devices will increase from under 1 billion this year to an astounding 11 billion in just 4 years' time.