A report has been published that claims the app market will be worth $75 billion a year by 2017, that's £48.57 billion. And a vast majority of that revenue will be generated by in-app purchases.

Analytics firm Juniper Research has conducted a study into the future of app stores, exploring the growth of the app ecosystem and taking into account that Amazon and Microsoft will present viable and strong competition to Apple and Google over the coming years. The company forecast the monetisation of the app market and determined that revenues generated by app sales at the point of download will represent just over a quarter of total revenues by 2017. The rest, almost 75 per cent, will be made up by in-app purchases, much to the chagrin of those who oppose the freemium business model.

Developers who are at the cutting edge of the market, however, will stand to make massive gains. Juniper found many of them will find ways to monetise 100 per cent of their user base, through a combination of advertising and in-app purchases.

The report also says that revenues generated through tablet applications will rise from $7.8 billion this year to $26.6 billion in 2017. And games will take the largest slice of the pie, generating 32 per cent of total revenues in 2017.