Revenues from paid mobile phone applications in the Asia Pacific region can reach the $871 million mark in 2011, an increase of $569 million in comparison to $302 million in 2010, according to Business Standard. This number can increase to $2.2 billion in 2016.

Also, the total number of mobile phone applications downloads in the region can touch the 5 billion mark by the end of 2011.  This will be an increase of 189 per cent in comparison to 1.6 billion downloads in 2010.

The popularity and acceptability of mobile apps will continue to grow in the next five years according to the analyst firm Ovum and the total number of mobile apps downloaded could reach 14 billion in 2016.

Android will end the reign of Apple as the leader in terms of total number of mobile apps downloaded in the region. The total number of apps downloaded from Android will be 1.8 billion (an increase from 244 million in 2010) in comparison to Apple’s 1.5 billion (an increase from 424 million in 2010). Additionally, Android will continue to be the leader for the next five years and will account for almost double the number (6.07 billion downloads from Android and 3.4 billion from the iPhones) of Android phone application downloads compared to iPhones by 2016.

The main reason behind Android’s success over rival Apple is that while Apple’s store remains exclusively for iPhones, Androids availability at lower price points increases the scale and reach of its platform.

Although Android and Apple will remain in the number 1 and 2 spots, the fight for the third spot will be fought between Windows Phone operating system and BlackBerry OS, with Windows Phone OS overtaking BlackBerry OS by 2015, both in the quantity of downloads and the revenues generated subsequently.