Data Suggests Mobile Apps Will Surpass CD in Sales By 2012

Just how big is the market for mobile apps?

Global mobile apps will be worth $17.5 billion by 2012, according to an independent report commissioned by app store GetJar. Mobile app downloads across all types of handset are also expected to increase from over 7 billion downloads in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012 - a year on year growth rate of 92%. 

This would mean that the value of apps sold would be greater than the projected $13.83 billion value of CDs sold in 2012.

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Yahoo Lands Exclusive Mobile Deal With Telefonica

Here are a few facts about Telefonica: it's a huge telecommunications company.  It's based in Spain.  And it's a good friend of Yahoo's, considering that Telefonica has named Yahoo the exclusive search and search advertising provider on its mobile portal in Spain.

The Telefonica-Yahoo relationship actually goes back a couple of years, since in late 2007, Telefonica made Yahoo oneSearch the main search service on 15 other mobile portals.  This is just a big step forward in terms of people affected and money at stake.

Scott Ellison, IDC's Vice President of Mobile and Wireless, explained in a statement, "The expansion of Yahoo!'s mobile search partnership with Telefonica into Spain continues to demonstrate Yahoo!'s ability to provide highly personalized and localized mobile search experiences and further establishes its position as a leading mobile customer experience provider.  Building a significant European market presence is essential toward executing a successful mobile strategy."

Strengthening its relationship with Telefonica might be essential to keeping Yahoo out of court, too.  Telefonica's CEO has expressed an interest in getting money from Google - "search engines use our network, without paying anything for it," he said about a month ago - but the expansion of this partnership increases the odds that he'll leave Yahoo alone.

Unfortunately, the terms of this deal haven't been disclosed.

Google Hopes Mobile Ad Rates Beat Desktop Standard

Investors and online advertising experts may want to consider for a moment what, exactly, has contributed to Google's stupendous financial success (current market cap: $180 billion).  Now consider this: Google thinks mobile ad rates might surpass what's come to be deemed the industry standard.

According to Reuters, Vic Gundotra, a vice president of engineering at Google, announced during a webcast, "We hope and believe that there's even a chance that we could exceed desktop in the future."

Of course, this isn't the first time someone representing the search giant has spoken highly of the mobile market; CEO Eric Schmidt and CFO Patrick Pichette, among others, have emphasized its importance before.  Earlier this month, a VP of advertising even claimed that desktops will be irrelevant in three years' time.

Still, Gundotra's comment may signify just how much Google is betting on the success of Android and mobile advertising, and how seriously it will take threats posed by Apple, Microsoft, and other companies.

Here's one last interesting tidbit: with regards to China, Pichette said during the same webcast that the country's "another great market in which Android should flourish."

Droid Beats iPhone In Sales Comparison

There's good and bad news for Google this morning with respect to Android and the mobile market.  In terms of how many units were sold during their first 74 days of availability, it seems the Droid beat the iPhone to the million-unit mark, but the Nexus One is lagging far behind.

That's the state of things according to Flurry, which claims that applications using its analytics tools have been embedded in more than 80 percent of iPhones and Android devices.  And anyone who's suspicious of the firm's stats should know that Goldman Sachs has used them as the basis for some forecasts, too.

So on to the comparison.  You can see the results below.  FYI: Flurry picked a 74-day period because that's how long Apple said it took for one million iPhones to sell.

Flurry noted that the Droid enjoyed several advantages here.  First, the iPhone had already taught consumers about the benefits of smartphones.  Verizon also boasted more subscribers than AT&T, and the Droid launched towards the start of the holiday shopping season.

Android can definitely compete with the iPhone, then.  The Nexus One's lack of success just makes it hard to judge what sort of circumstances are needed to even the odds.

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