Mobile Users Predicted To Download 70 Billion Apps This Year

If there's one thing to know about smartphone and tablet users, it's that they download a lot of apps. I have 93 apps and games currently on my smartphone, and I don't consider that a large amount by any means, so when you take into account that every mobile user has a handful of apps on their devices, it can really add up. This year, though, research firm ABI Research predicts that mobile app downloads will hit 70 billion combined by the end of the year.

Breaking that number down, it's predicted that smartphone users will account for 56 billion of those app downloads, while tablet users will take the remaining 14 billion. As for the split between Android and iOS, ABI predicts that Android will take the majority of app downloads, with 58% of the pie, while iOS will claim 75% as far as tablet apps are concerned.

Besides Android's 58%, iOS will garner 33% of all app downloads in 2013, while Windows Phone and BlackBerry will each get 4% and 3%, respectively. As for tablet apps, Android will represent 17% of all tablet apps downloaded, while Amazon's tablets will take 4%, and Windows tablets will take 2% — mere crumbs from an app pie.

70 billion app downloads is a lot, and it goes to show that mobile devices are slowly taking over. It's also interesting that Android is predicted to get most of the pie this year, considering that Google Play has had to play catch-up with the iTunes App Store for the past couple of years, but it looks like the Android app portal is finally gaining ground.