Phone apps rake in $6.2B

Austin , Texas Mobile phone users are expected to spend $6.2 billion downloading applications this year, up from $4.2 billion last year, according to a recent Gartner report.

The company also forecasts sales hitting about $29.5 billion by the end of 2013.

“As smartphones grow in popularity and application stores become the focus for several players in the value chain, more consumers will experiment with application downloads,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner. “Games remain the No. 1 application, and mobile shopping, social networking, utilities and productivity tools continue to grow and attract increasing amounts of money.”