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Why Smartphone Apps Competition Will Intensify

News and entertainment smartphone applications (apps) are downloaded the most, but productivity apps apparently generate the most revenues, according to the latest market study by In-Stat.

Productivity applications -- such as mapping, business and enterprise applications and phone tools or utilities -- generate 59 percent of all smartphone application revenue.

According to In-Stat assessment, the competition in the smartphone app market will intensify over the next few years as developer ecosystems become more competitive with the Apple iPhone app store.

There are more than eight common smartphone Operating Systems (OS), and the number is likely to grow rather than shrink. Google will exploit its Internet dominance, and Apple will leverage its development community and stable platform. Microsoft is placing its market recovery bet on Windows Mobile 7.

In-Stat's market study found the following:

- Games and Music & Radio are the top 2 news and entertainment smartphone apps downloaded.

- Although Mobile VoIP was the highest 2010 growth segment of social networking and messaging applications, e-mail apps continue to dominate the category in terms of total downloads.

- The number of Android apps downloaded is growing at the fastest rate; however, Apple applications still dominate both free and paid downloads.

- In-Stat predicts that 2012 witnesses the last of the Palm OS application downloads.

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