Nov 3, 2011 12:33 PM,

Android and iOS apps are feeding China, the new 'mobile app dragon'

By Michelle Maisto

The growth of Android and iOS mobile app downloads in China are unprecedented, according to Flurry, which expects nearly 50 billion downloads next year.

Downloads of iOS and Android mobile apps are expected to reach 25 billion by year's end, according to analytics firm Flurry, which is further forecasting that figure to double in 2012. While U.S. consumers, with our (relative) high rates of disposable income were early backers of the trend and still lead it, the world is catching on, and no country more so than China.

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"As one of the fastest modernizing and largest countries in the world, the adoption of mobile apps in China is unprecedented," blogged Flurry's Peter Farago. "For app developers, who more traditionally look at North America and Europe. China is a market too compelling to ignore."

Flurry tracked the 20 billion plus mobile app sessions that occurred over the first 10 months of the year. In January, the U.S. accounted for 55% of these, though only 47% in October — despite the number of sessions in the U.S. actually doubling during that time. The discrepancy? The rest of the world is just growing even faster.

The top 100 countries are averaging session growth of more than 200%, Flurry found. In the top 10 (behind the U.S., that is) mobile app downloads in Taiwan rose by 328% during the period; Brazil by 369%, Israel by 427% and Argentina by 527%. The growth rate in China? 870%.

Flurry notes that foreign direct investment in China was a record $106 billion in 2010, that Nov. 2010 forecasting by the Boston Consulting Group expects the number of middle-income and affluent consumers in China to nearly triple over the next 10 years, to 415 million people. And, according to China's Ministry of Industry, China now has more than 950 million cell phone users.

Smartphone buyers in China were a highlight of HTC's recent earnings announcement (CP: HTC, despite strong demand in China, nervous for fourth quarter) and Apple CEO Tim Cook has described the country as an "area of enormous opportunity."

Calling China "the new mobile dragon," Farago describes its appetite for mobile apps as "voracious."

Incentive, if ever any was need.