Market research firm, Gartner sees big opportunity for the mobile application stores which is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon. The sector is estimated to be worth $ 6.2 billion in 2010 with downloads exceeding 4.5 billion.

Advertising revenues from this segment is expected to be worth $ 0.6 billion across the globe. 8 out of 10 downloads will be free.

By 2013 the downloads will exceed 21.6 billion while free download will account for 82% of all downloads in 2010 and 87% by 2013.

“As smartphones grow in popularity and application stores become the focus for several players in the value chain, more consumers will experiment with application downloads,” comments Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner. “Games remain the No. 1 application, and mobile shopping, social networking, utilities and productivity tools continue to grow and attract increasing amounts of money.”

Application developers generally earn by way of advertisements in the form of banners as well as full page advertisements which are incorporated in their respective applications. Advertising sponsored mobile applications will contribute 25% of mobile application stores by 2013.

In 2009 alone the mobile application stores industry notched revenues of $ 4.2 billion, By 2013 it will grow to $ 29.5 billion.

High-end smartphone users are seen to be early adopters of mobile applications.

“Growth in smartphone sales will not necessarily mean that consumers will spend more money, but it will widen the addressable market for an offering that will be advertising-funded,” adds Ms Baghdassarian. “The value chain of the application stores will evolve as rules are set and broken in an attempt to find the most profitable business model for all parties involved.”