Understanding the impact of mobile app markets on software practice

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Recent market studies predict that the global mobile app economy is expected to be worth $143 billion by end of 2016. However, unlike traditional software, the distribution mechanism for software applications on mobile devices (or mobile apps) is very different - they are released through app markets (e.g., Google Play, or Apple’s App store). Such app markets have changed the way software developers interact with users, the way software is released, and the way users consume the software. There are three types of developers that belong to the app market ecosystem: (a) the developer that builds and releases the apps (eg., Rovio Entertainment that released Angry Birds), (b) the developers that build software libraries that are used across many different apps (eg., the Facebook SDK library), and (c) the developers that build and maintain the app store (eg., Google/BlackBerry).