While noting that mobile app revenue from in-app purchases will pass pay-per-download revenue in 2012, ABI Research warned that “unless app developers get creative and Google gets in gear, the in-app purchase party could be short-lived.”

The analyst company said that Google has not only lagged in terms of in-app purchases, but also in other forms of app monetisation – a criticism which has been widely levelled at the company before. In a statement, it noted that the Android enabler did not introduce in-app purchases until July 2011, and only added 17 “mostly-European countries” in December – while pay-per-download is similarly unavailable in many markets and subscription services are not available at all.

Mark Beccue, senior analyst with ABI, noted: “Google is literally holding back the growth of mobile application monetisation. We are keying many of our mobile app revenue forecasts around our guess of Google’s plans.”

The company also said that the in-app purchase model is “very limited” currently, with adoption currently driven by a “tiny percentage” of dedicated mobile gamers. “We don’t believe the percentage of mobile game players making in-app purchases will grow significantly, so for in-app purchase revenues to grow, mobile developers other than game developers must adopt it,” Beccue said.