Yankee Group predicts mobile apps bonanza in 2013

But since when did analysts predict anything other than a bonanza?

App developers looking for VC cash, here's your latest stats to tout: Yankee Group claims that by 2013, US smartphone users will download nearly seven billion apps, generating $4.2 billion of revenue.

What's more, the analyst thinks that paid apps will account for one in four downloads by 2013, gaining ground at the expense of free applications.

The company has also put a figure on the average price of paid apps by 2013 - $2.37 - promising a change from the current dominance of 99-cent applications.

What's slightly disconcerting about Yankee Group's research is its use of the term 'gold rush' to describe the mobile apps market in the years ahead, while director Carl Howe says that "every mobile developer could be the next Bill Gates for smartphones, but only if they bet on the platforms with the right reach and fit for their application."

Bill Gates didn't have to bet on a platform owned and controlled by Apple, BlackBerry or Google - he owned the platform! And isn't the whole point of a gold rush that the vast majority of people doing the rushing won't find any gold?