New research from IDC forecasts that the number of downloaded apps is expected to increase from 10.9 billion worldwide in 2010 to 76.9 billion in 2014, while market revenues will experience similar growth, surpassing US$35 billion in 2014.

The download figure is way ahead of an earlier forecast from Juniper Research, which in July predicted 25 billion downloads by 2015. Juniper’s revenue figure is US$32 billion in 2015.

IDC claims the growth will come as mobile apps find their way beyond smartphones and media tablets into connected TVs and, by extension, the connected home. “Mobile app developers will ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds,” stated Scott Ellison, vice president, Mobile and Wireless research at IDC. “The extension of mobile apps to every aspect of our personal and business lives will be one of the hallmarks of the new decade with enormous opportunities for virtually every business sector.” Ellison claimed that such appification has “the power to change the way we live.”