Juniper Research (News - Alert), which is known to provide on-going reliable, in-depth and dependable information covering market sectors within the mobile ecosystem, has come up with some interested findings about in-app purchases for tablet gamers.

Findings show that game playing on- the-go has been taking off; in 2011, in fact, games were the most popular apps (at least on smartphones).

The new study suggests that the amount of money spent on in-app purchases on tablets is also growing. In 2012, it was calculated that tablet gamers spent about $301 million alone. That figure would reach over 10 times that amount by 2016, envisions Juniper Research.


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The research, which is covered in Juniper’s Mobile and Tablet Games Report, reveals how the games ecosystem is evolving. It foresees that the revenue accumulated from pay-per-download and in-app purchases as well as from virtual currencies on dedicated portable gaming devices, like on tablets, will have a major impact on the video gaming industry.

The report shows that it has become a fast-moving Mobile and Tablet Games market; it implies that there will be significant trends in the market for tablet devices in the future (year-on-year growth). Juniper Research predicts that the growing acceptance of in-game purchasing will result in over $3 billion of sales in 2016 for tablet devices; while, it will be double that amount for smartphone gamers (more than $6 billion spent on in-app purchases).

This explosive growth in spending on in-app purchases by mobile gamers suggests the evolution of tablets (as well as the smartphone market, for that matter) has become the predominant way that mobile developers monetize their work.

The use of virtual currencies, for example, to play casino style games, like Texas Poker, has increased users’ engagement; most are highly engaged in uninterrupted gameplay sessions.

With a small amount of gamers actually wanting to make in-game purchases, before, it is believed that the more apps a user downloads/installs on a mobile device to play fun free online games, the more likely they will make in-app purchases for other genres of games from developers. Apsalar analyses some of the most lucrative games for in-app purchases by genre.

In helping to drive in-app purchases for Wi-Fi only as well as 3G/4G-enabled devices, Juniper Research concludes that developers are giving users a taste of the game, coughing up cash for chips and other in-game items, to get more paid users and have them spend more money and time on featured games.

Those interested in the Juniper Research insight into the mobile games industry, will need to read the eighth edition of Juniper’s Mobile and Tablet Games Report; click here to view its contents.