A new report from App Annie paints a rosy picture for the mobile development industry. The firm predicts that the global app economy will increase from $1.3 billion in 2016 to $6.3 trillion by 2021. In addition, the firm believes the global user base will grow from 3.4 billion to 6.3 billion over that time period, and time spent in apps will increase from 1.6 trillion hours to 3.5 trillion hours.
On average, mobile users contributed $379 per person to the app economy last year, or the equivalent of $0.80 per hour. (That contribution includes mobile commerce and advertising viewing, as well as direct app purchases.) In some markets, users spent much more. For example, in Japan each user generated $13.98 per hour, and in the U.S. the average was $2.36 per hour.
