The face of mobile applications in 2012

The report, which lists the top ten applications, is based on the impact apps have on consumers and industry players, revenue, the business model, consumer value, and estimated market penetration.

“Consumer mobile applications and services are no longer the prerogative of mobile carriers,” said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner.

Gartner has predicted that Money Transfer and Location based applications will be the two most lucrative and important types of applications in 2012.

She added: “The increasing consumer interest in smartphones, the participation of Internet players in the mobile space, and the emergence of application stores and cross-industry services are reducing the dominance of mobile carriers. Each player will influence how the application is delivered and experienced by consumers, who ultimately vote with their attention and spending power.”

According to the report, money transfer services allow for faster, cheaper and more convenient means of moving money around when compared to more tradition forms of transfer services. For this reason, money transfer applications will have strong appeal in both developed and developing markets alike.

Garnet predicts that location based service (LBS) users will grow from 96 million in 2009 to more than 526 million in 2012. And for this reason, it is ranked second in its poll of the most important apps of the future.

According to the Gartner report, “Its high user value is the result of its ability to meet a range of needs, ranging from productivity and goal fulfillment to social networking and entertainment.”

Other types of application featured in the list were, mobile search, mobile browsing, mobile health browsing, mobile payment, near field communication services, mobile advertising, mobile instant messaging, and mobile music.

Check out here for a detailed break down of each type of application.