But that will be a peak.
Analyst ABI Research has predicted that nearly seven billion smartphone apps will be downloaded in 2013, up from 2.4 billion in 2009.
However, the company describes 2013 as a 'high point', saying that downloads from app stores will start a slow decline after that point.
Why? The mobile web.
"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," says senior analyst Mark Beccue.
"But as our use of the mobile Internet evolves, demand will increasingly shift elsewhere."
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ABI thinks many apps will become web apps, but also that popular apps such as social networking services will increasingly be preloaded on phones, rather than downloaded by users.
