Prior to the introduction of Apple'

Prior to the introduction of Apple's AppStore and more recently Google's Android Market, platforms did not have a central portal. With the introduction of its AppStore, Apple has proven that a mobile application market should not be underestimated and can represent an important revenue stream. According to CEO Steve Jobs, the AppStore has generated a revenue of a million dollars a day in its first month of existence.4 There are currently 15000 applications on the portal, which have been downloaded a total of 500 million times. Note that these figures grew by 50% in the last month.5 Following Apple's lead, traditional platforms like Nokia, RIM and Microsoft seem to be moving in this direction. Nokia is pushing its OVI portal and RIM has developed its own Application Center. Microsoft is also planning to launch its own version of the AppStore called SkyMarket with the next version of Windows Mobile (WM7). Figure 3 depicts this trend.