Mobile Preloaded Software To Become The Next Big Thing

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Don’t you love those trialware crap programs that have come preloaded on new PCs for years? Well, expect to start seeing them on your mobile phone, as the market researchers at iSuppli say that preloaded mobile phone software will become a bigger and bigger business, reaching (in their estimate) $7.7 billion in revenues by 2014.

It’s worth noting that we’re not talking about the trial version of McAfee Anti-virus or something. iSuppli is talking about ‘native’ applications that come pre-installed on phones, like the clock, calendar, calculator and organizer apps. The big business here is coming from third-party developers who write these apps for the carriers.

They’re mainly referring to featurephones where customers often just use the “AT&T Calendar” or whatever simple app is included on their Nokia Mural 6750 phone. Manufacturers and carriers are buying licenses for these simple preinstalled apps from developers in large numbers and it’s expected to become a large market. It’s already pretty profitable – in 2008, the industry made $3.3 billion.

It will be interesting to see how the growth of smartphones affects this industry. We’d argue that pre-installed apps are less important on most smartphone platforms as customers can install their own apps (either from a third-party or a sanctioned store like iTunes). With industry insiders predicting huge growth for smartphones, could these pre-installed app developers be in trouble?

Do you like preloaded apps? Do you ever use them on your phone?