Consumers downloaded 2.4bn smartphone apps from app stores in 2009

And the download rate is expected to accelerate over the next few years, until peaking at just below seven billion in 2013.

Apple’s app store will continue to lead the field, said ABI.

However, that is predicted to be the highpoint, and in the following years smartphone download rates from app stores will start a slow decline, although total downloads from all sources will probably continue to grow.

ABI Research senior analyst Mark Beccue said: “App stores aren’t going away: following the 2013 peak in demand, the number of downloads in 2015 will have decreased only seven or eight percent.

“But as our use of the mobile internet evolves, demand will increasingly shift elsewhere.”

At the end of 2009, Screen Digest forecast that revenues from apps will double in the next four years, reaching €100 billion a year by the end of 2013.

According to Analysys Mason, the number of smartphones in use worldwide will grow at an annual rate of 32% between 2010 and 2014, while comScore research claims the UK smartphone market has grown 70% over the past year, to more than 11 million subscribers.