Mobile applications are one of the fastest-growing segments of the high-tech economy, with some analysts estimating an $11 billion industry by 2014. A report by the Yankee Group projects that U.S. consumers this year will spend $1.6 billion downloading apps that make mobile devices more fun or useful.
But Americans and Canadians are paying a premium for that luxury. A study released Wednesday found that, on average, users in the U.S. and Canada pay more than five times more for apps than users in other parts of the world, accounting for 50 percent of global app revenue.
The technology and strategy consulting firm Chetan Sharma analyzed figures from developers, carriers and equipment manufacturers to come up with the data for Getjar, which is believed to be the second-largest app seller after Apple.
It found that North Americans on average shell out $1.09, the highest sum in the world, for apps that sell elsewhere for less than 20 cents.
Chetan Sharma’s research found that Europeans generally pay less than 80 cents for apps, while the lowest average sales prices (ASP) were, in descending order, in South America, Asia, and the Middle East/Africa. All those consumers pay less than 20 cents, the study said.
“It is evident that the business models required for the emerging markets will be quite different than the western markets, as the market economics and dynamics are quite different,” the study says. “For the emerging markets, it is a volumes game. While the ASPs will be smaller, if an overall strategy is executed well, the volume of data usage and app downloads can make up for the smaller per-unit revenues (either from paid downloads or advertising).”
Chetan Sharma noted that while smartphones are less common outside the U.S., “application downloads in emerging markets can actually exceed downloads on smartphones in western…