More than $75 billion will be spent on consumer apps in 2017, with wider adoption of in-app purchasing and operator billing playing a major role in driving this, according to a Juniper Research report.

According to the company, the proportion of revenue from apps paid for at the point of download will fall to “almost a quarter” of the total. But developers “at the cutting edge of the market” are using a combination of in-app purchases and advertising to “monetise 100 per cent of their user base”.

Report author Siân Rowlands said many app stores are also trying to capitalise on their user base by integrating direct billing, to make sure consumers without payment cards are able to purchase apps, contributing to the strong app download growth.

Juniper Research predicts that Microsoft and Amazon will become increasingly competitive with Apple and Google in the app store space, prompting the introduction of better search and discovery tools to attract developers.

Mozilla’s Firefox Marketplace, which is hoping to make an impact on the app store ecosystem, recently added direct operator billing, suggesting there is growing momentum for the payment model.

The analyst firm also forecast that the app revenue generated from tablets will rise to $26.6 billion in 2017 from $7.8 billion this year. Games will account for 32 per cent of consumer app spend in 2017.