By 2020, global app store gross revenue will exceed $102 billion, with APAC seeing the strongest revenue growth and EMEA and the Americas not far behind, App Annie said.

This is in keeping with a study it released in February, when it forecast revenue would exceed $101 billion in 2020, thanks to strong app adoption in developing economies and apps’ ability to capture “greater wallet share” in mature markets.

Mature economies such as the US, Japan and Western Europe represent more than two-thirds of app store revenue, as their consumers use them to tap into a developed infrastructure of apps “catering to convenience”, the study said.

These economies will continue to see strong growth in the coming year with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) approaching 12 per cent.

But by 2020, App Annie expects emerging economies to account for 40 per cent of the global total revenue as their app store revenue grows at a CAGR of 29 per cent.

Among these markets, India will see the fastest app store revenue growth by far, well ahead of second-place Brazil, which itself will see faster growth than Argentina, Mexico and Indonesia.

In February, the research firm had said India will be a significant contributor to download growth thanks to the influx of capable smartphones priced below $50, boosting adoption.

It reiterated that “affordable yet capable smartphones” will bring the benefits of apps to new populations around the globe.

It also pointed out that consumers in countries like India and Brazil are at the “very early stages of app adoption” and the lack of established usage patterns presents businesses and developers with huge opportunities to gain a competitive advantage.

The report noted that platform vendors will continue to “evolve key app experiences” such as discovery, installation, personalisation and deep linking, and developers will tap into advances in artificial intelligence, object recognition and context awareness.

“All these factors will help apps shift the engagement paradigm of the smartphone interface beyond elegance to relevance,” the report said.