Apple (News - Alert) owners are downloading a larger number of apps in 2011 – and the prices they are buying them for are higher than during last year.

According to a new study by Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, an “average” iOS device owner is expected to download 83 apps during 2011.

This same average owner in 2010 downloaded 51 apps. That represents a 61 percent increase year over year.

“Smartphone users are showing an increasing appetite to use apps to add features to their phones,” Munster said in an article on Fortune.com, “and iOS has the leading app ecosystem.”

In his analysis, Munster said the apps are also more expensive.

He said the average selling price (ASP) increased 14 percent year- to-year during 2011 as opposed to an 18 percent decline in 2010, Munster said.

“After the initial race to the bottom in App Store pricing, we are seeing users pay up to add features and games to their iOS devices,” Munster was quoted by Fortune.com.

In addition, Apple's App Store now has over 425,000 apps. The Android (News - Alert) Market has 200,000 apps.

Google – in May – had its 4.5 billionth app download, compared to Apple's 15 billion, reports Fortune.

Also, some 82 percent of the apps in the Apple store are offered free of charge. The 18 percent of apps users pay for have an ASP of $1.44, Fortune reports.

According to Munster, more expensive iPad apps are an increasing percentage of app downloads – which in turn are leading to a higher ASP.

News that Apple had 15 billion apps led to Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) analyst Craig Cartier to comment in an article appearing on TMCnet, “The news underscores the fact that Apple is the envy of the industry when it comes to the applications space, a strategic area for the mobile industry.”

Consumers are using mobile devices for varied tasks, such as: Internet browsing, email, TV, music, video, games, and navigation, Cartier said.

“As the number of end users and consumption per user of applications will be growing, the entity enabling consumer access to these apps is of critical strategic importance. Device manufacturers, operating system manufacturers, and mobile network operators are all fighting to be that entity. In the Apple ecosystem (that is, the combination of developers who write applications for Apple devices and the consumers who use them) Apple has clearly secured that strategic position,” Cartier added.

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