At least that is what a report done for Getjar says. Getjar is the worlds second biggest apps store (after the Apple apps store, of course). The number that everyone is salivating about is 17.5 billion dollars! Seriously, can you imagine that much money? And to see a market that HUGE by 2012 is nothing short of amazing. Apps downloads are set to increase from 7bn last year to 50bn by 2012 (92% year-on-year increase).

The study also explains that there will be inevitable struggle for dominance of the market and there is no guarantee that Apple will keep the number one spot. With less that 5 stores around 24 months ago to 48 stores today and with handset manufacturers and other suppliers to the mobile market unveiling apps stores as a de-facto add-on to their offering I wonder just how many stores we will see by the end of this year.

And following on from my writings yesterday – what would happen should Google get serious and muscle into the Apple/iPhone/Apps Store space completely? Either way, there should be enough business out there to keep mobile app developers happy for a while yet.