Mobile App Revenue Estimated at $35 Billion by 2014

Angry Birds, the hot mobile game application of 2010, made headlines this year not just because actor Jon Hamm, writer Salman Rushdie, and British Prime Minster David Cameron all publicly professed their love for it.

Rather, one of the tech industry shockers of 2010 was Angry Birds developer Rovio announcing that it had been downloaded 42 million times worldwide.

The puzzle video game represents the first crest of a growing wave in the mobile app business, according to a new report from the International Data Corp.

Mobile apps will grow from 10.9 billion downloads this year to 76.9 billion downloads in 2014, ReadWriteWeb said in its coverage of the report. That represents an annual average increase of 60 percent.

By 2014, the mobile application business will generate $35 billion in revenue worldwide, ReadWriteWeb reports.

The IDC report joins a host of other market analyses predicting stunning growth in the mobile app marketplace, ReadWriteWeb reports.

"Mobile app developers will 'appify' just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds," said Scott Ellison, vice president, Mobile and Wireless research at IDC. "The extension of mobile apps to every aspect of our personal and business lives will be one of the hallmarks of the new decade with enormous opportunities for virtually every business sector."

The Facebook app was the most used mobile app on iPhones and Blackberrys in 2010, according to the Nielsen Company. Google Maps was the most popular app on Android devices during the same time.