A few years ago no one had heard of mobile applications but today they're everywhere. From games to GPS trackers, you can, quite literally, find "an app for that".
As well as becoming hugely popular in the last few years, these applications are now starting to make big money. A study by the world's second largest app store, Getjar, has revealed the app market is set to grow to a staggering $17.5 billion in the next 2 years.
The study shows downloads will also rise. The download number is set to soar from 7 billion last year to 50 billion in 2012 - a 92% year on year increase.
While Apple's App Store still remains the dominant player in the market, the number of app stores have increased more than ten fold in the last 2 years. Nowadays, there are plenty of app stores to choose from, including those from Blackberry, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung.
Since its launch, Google's Android Marketplace now has over 30,000 applications for smartphone downloading. This high figure shows just how much variety and choice there is in the application world.
The number of available applications and downloads is also set to increase with the launch of the iPad next month. Many mobile workers are eager for the arrival of the iPad as the format and style will really help when working on the go. The imminent unveiling of the tablet has also seen a rush back to the iPhone.
"We have definitely seen a shift back to the iPhone with the anticipation of the iPad and a little bit of the disappointment with the Nexus 1 (Google phone)," said Simon Khalaf from Flurry Analytics.
"Definitely there has been a rush of applications. It will invite a new wave of developers and it is a very cool device so people are going to develop for it."
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