The global appetite for mobile applications will explode over the next two years, new research suggests.

一份新调查显示，全球范围内对手机应用软件的需求会在未来两年之内迅速增长。

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The success of Apple's App store has spawned an industry of imitators

A study done for Getjar, the world's second biggest app store, said the market will grow to $17.5bn (£12bn) in the next two years.

The study claimed downloads would climb from 7bn last year to 50bn by 2012 - a 92% year-on-year increase.

It found there had been a gold rush with the number of app stores rising from four before 2008 to 48 today.

The study also suggests Apple's domination of the market could be challenged.

"We wanted to find out the real value of the industry because we felt certain segments（片段） like the iPhone were being over-hyped and so-called feature phones were being under-hyped," said Getjar founder² and chief executive officer Ilja Laurs.

Feature phones are less powerful than smart phones but can still run some third-party software.

Smart rush

While Apple's App Store is regarded as the dominant³（支配的，占优势的） player, there are many more to choose from including those from BlackBerry, Microsoft, Google, Nokia, and Samsung.

Google's Android Marketplace, for instance, has more than 30,000 apps made for smartphones running on its mobile operating system.

Mr Laurs said the figures attributed to the iPhone's value have been unbelievable in some cases.

"The value of the iPhone App store ranges from as low as $700m (£466m) to $2.5bn (£1.66bn). You can see the range is huge," he said.

Mr Laurs said the research found that feature phones should not be ignored in the rush to create apps for smartphones.

"It is almost as if these phones don't exist. We know smartphones are an extremely important phenomenon, but in terms of consumer mindshare（注意力份额） and revenue share, feature phones represent 90% of the global market compared to 10% for smartphones and data cards."