Average price of paid smartphone apps up 43 percent this year

According to a new report by Yankee Group titled "The Mobile App Gold Rush Speeds Up," the average price of pay-for smartphone apps has increased from last year from $1.99 to $2.85. The study also found that nearly a 33 percent of all downloaded apps are purchased, up from 18 percent last year.

AT&T subscribers download an average of 27 applications annually, 42 percent more than the average user, and Apple iPhone owners download an average of 60 apps, which is three times the average mobile phone user downloads. "Apple's innovative one-click technology and AT&T's exclusive deal for the iPhone put them ahead for now, but strong results from T-Mobile suggest that Android will be the next breakout smartphone app platform," Carl Howe, director at Yankee Group, and the author of the report, argued.

T-Mobile customers download 18 apps per year, on average, and Yankee Group attributes that figure to its large Android portfolio. [via ]