Riding on the growing popularity of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, the market for mobile apps (applications) is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 82 per cent to touch $38 billion by 2015.

According to a recent report from research firm Forrester, the advent of the applications internet is expected to shake up the market and have far reaching implications on the way software is designed and priced.

Apple still leads the pack with an 82.7 per cent market share in this space which has seen an explosion of activity and development on the new generation of Android and Apple mobile phones and most recently tablets. Apple has 3,50,000 apps while there are 1,50,000 applications available on the Android platform.

The Forrester Vice-President, Mr John McCarthy, feels that corporations will spend up to $17 billion in creating apps for their products and working with third-party services and companies that manage these apps. Several corporations will build private applications meant for internal purposes alone, he said.

As companies move to integrate their disparate mobile app efforts, Forrester expects many organisations to create a new role to manage app Internet efforts that span the call centre, customer service, marketing, eCommerce and IT.

The chief mobility officer will become a key constituent in the mobile apps and services buying cycle, Mr McCarthy said in the report.

As an extension of the outsourcing of product development services, Forrester sees independent software vendors turning more to ‘crowdsourcing' as a way to quickly innovate. The modular design of the apps facilitates the shift by breaking work into smaller segments, it said.

“The development of this mobile “app Internet” with hybrid local and cloud-supported applications will not only foster huge levels of innovation but also open up new services opportunities around the creation and management of these business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and business-to-enterprises apps,” said Mr McCarthy.