BAGALORE, INDIA: Apps shrink the programs that were once available only on a desktop computer to make them usable on smartphones and mobile devices–stock trades, restau-rant reviews, Facebook, streaming radio, photographs, news articles, videos and, of course, Angry Birds. Every week about 100 movies get released worldwide, along with 250 books that compares to the release of around 15,000 apps per week.

An app that allows users to broadcast live video to the Internet using a smartphone, or watch video anywhere, explained how the world has changed. Google's Android Market, Facebook, as well as Google applications such as Search, Gmail and Google Maps, are roughly the top most popular smartphone applications for the Android platform. Also, Google's YouTube app gets heavy usage from Android smartphone owners.

What does this data show? That a handful of apps already have close to one billion users (Google Search has one billion, while Facebook has 800 million+ on its network) or at least hundreds of millions of users (Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube) receive the overwhelming majority of attention on Android handsets. Android app downloads are helped by the fact that more than 200 million Android devices have been activated all over the world, with 550,000 activated each day.

Several months ago, researchers with Boeing and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology successfully flew a miniature unmanned aircraft using an iPhone app featuring a touch interface from 3,000 miles away. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, the agency responsible for coming up with many of the U.S's military technology, is seeking app developers for smart-phones for its Adaptable Sensor System (ADAPT).

Core software for the ADAPT program is currently under development and functions similar to the Android mobile OS. The difference between the ADAPT sensors and commercial smartphones, however, is they will not have user interface features such as a touchscreen, camera, phone, or a battery.

There are interesting ideas brewing in the healthcare space. There could be an app that alerts you when the pollen levels are too high, while another could offer diabetes testing. The first generation of apps have been about consumption, but the app developers are now trying to focus on apps that encourage people to create.

Considering the revenue generation through these apps, the smartphone application market fetched about $1.94 billion in revenue last year, and it is to grow over 807 percent to $15.65 billion by 2013. The mobile app business will soon hit over $6 billion in annual sales.

With the facts right in place and as the world of mobile apps continues to gain importance in our lives, the space will continue to be ruled by tech newbies. In the past three years, over 300,000 apps have been developed, and downloaded 10.9 billion times. The figures are evident enough to point towards the bright future of smartphone apps.