By 2017, the App Market Will Be a $77 Billion Industry (Infographic) Mobile phone users are spending more and more time using apps. Here's a look at what they are using and how much they are paying for those apps.

By Catherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The market for mobile apps is already big -- and it's just going to keep getting bigger. If your business doesn't already have a mobile app, it might be time to think about developing one.

In 2015, 1 billion smartphones will be sold. That's twice as many as the number of personal computers, according to this infographic generated for the by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Online Masters in Management Information Systems. Right now, the average mobile app user spends more than 30 hours a month on more than two dozen apps. That's a lot of people spending a lot of time with their noses stuck in apps.

Given that 46 percent of app users report having paid for their apps, that's big money, too. By 2017, its expected that over 268 billion downloads will generate $77 billion worth of revenue.

Related: 5 Strategies to Get Your Users to Market Your Mobile App for You

For information on the type of apps people are using and trends in future mobile apps, have a look at the infographic below.

Click to Enlarge+
By 2017, the App Market Will Be a $77 Billion Industry (Infographic)
Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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