Allied Market Research’s new report, Mobile Application Market, says the global mobile application industry was pegged at $106.3 billion in 2018 and is estimated to reach $407.3 billion by 2026, growing at a compound annual growth (CAGR) of 18.4% from 2019 to 2026.

Increase in smartphone users, rise in adoption of wearable devices, and surge in data usage & Internet penetration have boosted the growth of the global mobile application market. However, Allied Market Research says the lack of high-speed connectivity in developing and underdeveloped regions and uncertainty of enterprises in developing their own applications hamper the market growth. 

On the contrary, the research group says the increase in adoption of Internet of things and mobile-connected smart objects and progress in usage of machine learning and artificial intelligence in mobile apps are expected to create lucrative opportunities in the near future.

The game store segment is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 19.1% during the study period, owing to the increase of Google play store in various mobile phones and tablets. However, the Apple store segment held the lion’s share in 2018, accounting for more than three-fifths of the global mobile application market. 

Allied Market Research says this is owing to different features provided by Apple store such as high security, multitasking, switching application, artificial intelligence (AI), and game center.

The entertainment & music segment is anticipated to register the fastest CAGR of 21.8% during the forecast period, owing to the rapid increase in usage of different entertainment applications. However, Allied Market Research says the gaming segment dominated the global mobile application market in 2018, contributing to nearly three-fifths of the market. This is due to the increase in addition of video games and other gaming consoles, adds the research group.