Apple More Than Doubles 2010 Apps Revenue, But Its Market Share Slips
Apple (APPL) more than doubled revenue from its mobile-device applications last year. But according to a report released Tuesday, the company's global share of that market slipped slightly -- as applications for Research in Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry and Google's (GOOG) Android mobile-computing platform chipped away at Apple's leadership.
Apple generated $1.78 billion in sales from its Apps store in 2010, up from $769 million a year earlier, the research firm iSuppli reported.The company benefited from last year's introduction of its iPad tablet computer because iPad applications tend to be more expensive than those for iPhones.
Still, Apple's global market share for mobile applications slipped to 83% last year, compared to 93% a year earlier, according to iSuppli. The number-two apps provider, BlackBerry App World, almost doubled its market share to about 8% by almost quadrupling its apps sales. Applications for Nokia's Ovi platform and Android, meanwhile, each had about 5% of the market in 2010.
Also on Tuesday, Apple said it was broadening the content subscription-billing service it started earlier the month with News Corp.'s (NWS)The Dailyelectronic newspaper -- extending that service to other magazines, newspapers, video providers and content sources, as the company looks to further benefit from the growing contingent of people who get their news on portable devices.
iSuppli's results, which showed a 160% jump in total applications sales in 2010, illustrate how Apple and other companies are banking on a rapidly expanding base of people using tablet computers, such as the iPad that Apple introduced last year. Global shipments of mini notebooks, tablet and touch-screen computers are expected to surge six fold -- to an estimated 122 million units in 2016 from about 20 million units in 2010, NPD Group's DisplaySearch division said in October.
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