The explosion of app development that started on the iPhone only scratches the surface of what’s about to emerge, according to new research from Forrester.

 Over the next five years, the scale and scope of the app market will expand through a new wave of innovation that leverages the intersection of cloud-based services, smart computing, and newly app- and internet-enabled devices such as cars, appliances, and entertainment systems.
That’s the conclusion of the analyst’s latest report on the app business, Mobile App Internet Recasts The Software And Services Landscape. While Forrester estimates that the revenue from paid apps on smartphones and tablets was $1.7bn worldwide in 2010, the proliferation of these “intelligence anywhere” apps will result in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 82 per cent through 2015. With it, the boundary between business and consumer, which has been steadily eroding since the advent of the PC, will completely disappear.
In addition to fostering huge levels of innovation, the development of this mobile “App Internet” is positioned to shift activity away from the web and to the app experience, forever changing many markets and the IT delivery system, Forrester believes. Looking ahead, the report highlights some of the far-reaching implications of the App Internet, including the rise of the chief mobility officer, responsible for managing App Internet efforts that span the call centre, customer service, marketing, eCommerce, and IT.
Report author John McCarthy says that the combined spend on apps and services will be $54.6bn a year by 2015, and that App Internet will impact every part of the IT delivery system. Sarah Rotman Epps, who covers the tablet market for Forrester, forecasts that tablet devices alone will generate $8.1bn in global app sales by 2015, and says that, with regard to innovation, app developers have only scratched the surface.
You can read the author’s blog post about the report here.