App market buyers loyal to carrier stores

Users are becoming increasingly more loyal to application stores run by carrier companies, defying the belief that manufacturers are controlling the market outright, a new Nielsen survey suggests.

The App Playbook report, which surveyed more than 4000 American application downloaders, found that half of all users were accessing app stores run by carriers.

While the Apple App Store took most of the market with 25%, followed by BlackBerry’s App World at 19%, the Verizon Store managed to take 19% of the market as well. The T-Mobile Application Store, the Sprint Application Store and the AT&T Application store also took 8%, 10% and 12% of the market respectively.

While no figures are available for Australia, carrier application stores are growing in popularity. Optus recently launched a business-focused app store, while Telstra is reportedly fleshing out an idea of its own.

The Nielsen study also found the Android Market Place is holding its ground with 2% of the market, while the Windows marketplace has managed to gain a lead on Google with 4%.