The app store train seems unstoppable. According to a Juniper Research report out today, the number of “consumer-oriented handset downloads” is expected to rise from less than 2.6 billion per-year in 2009 to more than 25 billion in 2015.

The trend, notes the report, is being driven by industry players who are seeking to emulate Apple’s success with the App Store by launching their own branded storefronts, such as ‘Mobile Market’ from China Unicom, ‘Airtel App Central’ from Bharti and the ‘Apps & Games Shop’ on Vodafone 360.

And let’s not forget Google’s Android, Nokia Ovi, Palm, Windows Phone etc. or the independent giant GetJar, which passed 1 billion downloads earlier this month.

You may read the rest of this report here.

The iPhone Apps get-rich-quick landscape is best suited for one of two people development shops. However, some companies are also making good revenues – specifically from in-app advertising. In the report below, AdWhirl says that top apps can make $400 to $5,000 per day on ads.

The iPhone Apps get-rich-quick landscape is best suited for one of two people development shops. However, some companies are also making good revenues – specifically from in-app advertising.

In the report below, AdWhirl says that top apps can make $400 to $5,000 per day on ads. The average CPM works out to around $2 per 1000 impressions. It may not look  impressive but its substantially better than the CPM rates at Facebook or MySpace apps.

However – These apps are from the most popular section on the app store… listing within the top 100 free apps. This is what is causing a problem for small developers. You need to crack into the top 100 if you want to get to the $400 daily revenue target.

Adwhirl iPhone Advertising Snapshot

Written by a seasoned Mac, iPhone and iPad expert developer, it will save you tons of time and money by helping you make all the right decisions when choosing which iPhone Apps you should develop and help you monetize your Apps when you are ready to take them to market.

The phenomenal success of the iPhone and the iPod touch has ushered in a “gold rush” for developers, but with well over 100,000 apps in the highly competitive App Store, it has become increasingly difficult for new apps to stand out in the crowd. Achieving consumer awareness and sales longevity for your iPhone app requires a lot of organization and some strategic planning. This book will show you how to incorporate marketing and business savvy into every aspect of the design and development process, giving your app the best possible chance of succeeding in the App Store.

The Business of iPhone App Development was written by experienced developers with business backgrounds, taking you step-by-step through cost-effective marketing techniques that have proven successful for professional iPhone app creators—perfect for independent developers on shoestring budgets. Although there are a few iPhone app marketing books on the horizon, they appear to tackle the subject from purely a marketer’s perspective. What makes this book unique is that it was written by developers for developers, showing you not only what to do, but also how to do it, complete with time-saving resources and ready-to-use code examples. No prior business knowledge is required. This is the book you wish you had read before you launched your first app!

What you’ll learn -

* Transform your iPhone app into a powerful marketing tool with easy-to-use concepts and code examples.
* Analyze your ideas, research the competition, and identify your audience to evaluate sales potential.
* Protect your business and intellectual property and avoid potential legal hassles.
* Utilize several revenue-generating business models such as in-app advertising, affiliate programs, and In-App Purchase. Includes an extensive chapter on tapping into the Store Kit API.
* Build synergy with in-app cross-promotion and social networking.
* Improve usability and implement effective testing, plus a comprehensive walkthrough of provisioning and ad hoc distribution.
* Create a pre-release buzz online with Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and a dedicated web site promoting your iPhone app.
* Successfully navigate the App Store submission process.
* Execute a post-release marketing strategy by crafting effective press releases, soliciting app reviews, and leveraging the power of promotional sales and giveaways.

You can read more about this book and even flip few a few of the chapters online on Amazon at the following link – The Business of iPhone App Development: Making and Marketing Apps that Succeed.

Planet of the Apps: A Hand-held Revolution Premieres Thursday, January 7th 10p ET on CNBC.

In this program well look at how apps have changed our lives, meet some of the creators behind them, and figure out just how big a business they really are.

For those who missed the CNBC special feature on iPhone Apps, this is a must see. Look around on Youtube for related clippings or you know where on torrents you can probably download the full episode from. Perhaps you can borrow a recording from your friend? For more information. Please log onto: www.planetoftheapps.cnbc.com

Here is a very neat infographic from Silicone Valley Insider. It shows the revenue of Apple from various segments in every quarter from Sep 2007 to Jun 2010.  As you can see the pink triangle shows iPad revenues after its recent launch.

It indicates that the iPad, has already made $2.2 billion in revenue! It is therefore making more money than the iPod is currently. Whats more interesting is that its also making more than the combined power of iTunes, Software and Peripherals combined.

Apple’s Mac division pulled in $4.4 billion, so the iPad is already half as big as the long lived desktop and laptop division. This is another indication to all you iPhone devs out there to start coming up with iPad Apps – both as new App ideas as well as extensions of your existing iPhone Apps.

I just read a great post that is very enlightening for all entrepreneurs who want to get a overall view with some hard numbers and data on the opportunity the Appstore presents. I don’t agree with some of the statements, and I firmly believe that to success you need a high quality app or you need to be quick enough to be able to create a clone of a newly introduced app that you quickly identify and create your own spin-off version off.

The purpose of this article is to examine the economics – and hopefully help guide potential developers and investors – into seeing where the real opportunity [if any] is and where the dangerous pitfalls are.

Its written in 2 pages, so make sure you read them both. There are some good hard numbers and stats that you may want to make a mental note off.

Here is the link – Full Disclosure: iPhone Apps Business.

A recent free mobile report by Distimo, covers the Apple App Store for iPad, the Apple App Store for iPhone, BlackBerry App World (Worldwide), Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile for May 2010 in the United States.

Major findings are:

More than 50% of applications are priced below or equal to $2.00 in all stores, with the exception of BlackBerry App World and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

The average price of all paid applications and the 100 most popular paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPad ($4.65) is higher than in the Apple App Store for iPhone ($4.01). However, the average price of the 100 top grossing applications is higher on the Apple App Store for iPhone.

Google Android Market has the largest share of free applications (57%) and Windows Marketplace for Mobile has the smallest (22%).

Twitter, Inc. published their native application in the Apple App Store and Google Android Market, becoming the monthly number 10 free application in the Apple App Store for iPhone, and the number 6 free application in Google Android Market.

Nine out of the ten most popular free applications and eight out of ten most popular paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPhone are games.

In the competitive e-reader market, both the iBooks application by Apple, Inc., and the Kindle application by Amazon.com are ranked among the 10 most popular free applications in the Apple App Store for iPad. Apple’s application is ranked number one however, and Amazon’s application is ranked number ten.

Five out of the ten most popular free applications in Windows Marketplace for Mobile are published by Microsoft Corporation.

Download the entire free report here!

Halfbrick has announced that its Fruit Ninja iPhone game has now sold over one million downloads since its release in mid-April 2010 – in a period of 2.5 months. That just shows again how a unique app can really cash in.

Players swipe their fingers across the screen to slash various fruits. The game also utilizes the OpenFeint platform for connected network features.

Development of the game started as an idea from their lead designer Luke Muscat, and was subsequently refined in the early months of 2010 before the company released it.

The company is planning to release free updates for the iPhone game, and has also now submitted an iPad version to Apple for approval. You can download Fruit Ninja iPhone game here.

Here are 10 iPhone Apps that are making a ton of money (early-mid 2010). Some of them have come from garage run one or two man teams. That should be some encouragement for all you indie devs out there… don’t lose hope! Your next app could be the million dollar blockbuster!

1. Pizza Hut
* Nearly 1m downloads in three months
* Generated $1m of sales
* Drove registrations for main website

2. Paper Toss
* 10m+ downloads
* $125k in monthly ad revenues
* Helped sell $1.25m of paid apps

3. Wall Street Journal
* Launch app for iPad
* 64k active users in first month
* $17.99 monthly subscription
* News Corp keeps the lot

4. Pandora Radio
* Adding 30k users a day just from the iPhone – half its new users from mobile
* 25% of its traffic comes from iPhone
* $40m of revenues in 2009, and first profitable quarter in Q4 2009

5. Doodle Jump
* 4m downloads since launch in Mar-09
* 80k downloads on Christmas Day alone
* $0.99 price equals $2.8m for two-man team Lima Sky
* Now a $3.99 Android game

6. RedLaser
* 2m downloads since launch in May-09
* 950k active in the last month
* At $1.99 price point equals $2-2.5 million of revenues
* 50m barcodes scanned

7. Flight Control
* 2m downloads since Mar-09
* At $0.99 equals $1.4m of revenues
* Now a $4.99 iPad game, and also a DSiWare title

8. Shazam
* 75m registered users – 25m added in last six months
* 1bn songs tagged so far
* Fuelling 260k track purchases every day – 6.3% of global total
* Mixture of revenue streams: ads and affiliate fees

9. Tap Tap Revenge
* More than 30m downloads
* $1m of revenues a month
* Sold 1m songs in first month of in-game store, and 100k Ke$ha tracks in two weeks
* Premium spin-offs: Lady Gaga, Nirvana, Coldplay etc
* Also ads, virtual items…

10. eBay
* $600m of sales volume through mobile in 2009
* Predicts $1.5bn in 2010
* 1.5m items bought through eBay Mobile at Christmas
* 6m iPhone downloads by Dec-09

Honourable Mentions…

* Apple – $5.45bn from iPhone hardware in Q1

* AdMob – being bought for $750m

* EA Mobile – $212m in its last fiscal year

* Gameloft – $25m from iPhone alone in 2009

* Recent funding for Booyah ($20m), Ground Truth $7m), ngmoco ($25m), TuneWiki (7m), SMS GupShup ($12m), Flurry ($7m)…

Lessons to learn from these Top 10 Apps…

* Your app has to be excellent

* Word of mouth is very important

* Mix and match your revenue streams

* Free often spawns premium apps

* Help people buy stuff in the real world

* Free apps are great for cross-promotion

If you want to get a quick round up of the recently held Monetizing Mobile Conference,  visit the Monetizing Mobile Round Up here.

If you missed it, you can still watch the streaming and downloadable video recordings. You need to be a registered Apple Developer in order to gain access. If you’re not – you have three options… 1) ask a friend who is registered or 2) search Youtube and any of the video sharing sites  or 3) register now as an Apple developer

Here’s where you can grab all the videos from the Apple WWDC 2010 …enjoy!