Feature phone apps to generate $1bn of revenues in 2015 says Ovum

Suggests lack of competition could mean some developers make a packet from less powerful phones.

Apps aren't just about smartphones, according to Ovum's latest market report. The analyst firm is predicting that revenues from feature phone apps will almost double to $1 billion by 2016.

The company says that it is getting easier to develop and publish feature phone apps, and points out that there is still a large addressable market of these devices. What's more, Ovum thinks the relative lack of competition will enable some developers to profit, where they might be squeezed out of the smartphone apps market.

"While feature phone users vastly outnumber smartphone users, the apps market hasn't taken off in the same way," says author Nick Dillon.

"This is largely because it has lacked the distribution channels to enable widespread adoption. However, inspired by the success of apps in the smartphone market, the options have improved drastically, with many larger handset manufacturers, operators and third parties now offering improved distribution programmes for feature phones."

Ovum predicts that there will be 2.3 billion feature phones in use globally by 2016 - 63% of the market. Ovum also spies opportunities for HTML5-based browser apps for feature phones in the next five years, rather than just downloadable Java apps.