A study by Ovum has forecast the dominance of Apple’s iPhone in the mobile app download market will decrease in coming years.

Industry rivals Android, Symbian and BlackBerry are predicted to increase in popularity.

The report by the independent telecoms analyst anticipates that mobile application downloads generated by non-operator application stores will grow by 41% globally over the next five years. This will see total downloads almost reaching 21.3 billion by 2015. A huge increase from 2.69 billion in 2009.

According to Ovum estimates, Apple generated 67% of all smartphone app downloads in 2009, despite claiming just 14% of the overall smartphone installed base. Symbian held a 49% share of the smartphone installed base but only generated an estimated 9% of the total applications downloads market.

Yet as Googles Android increases marketing share, Ovum expects between 2009-15 that it will increase from 5% to 18% of market incorporation and its mobile application download share from 14% to 26%.
The report also predicted by 2015 Apple will generate a modest 22% of app downloads, compared to 19% for Symbian.

Michele Mackenzie, principal analyst at Ovum and report co-author believes Apples dominance in the market will gradually balance out with the other players in the market.

“The iPhone generates the lion’s share of smartphone app downloads but over the period we will see the share of application downloads becoming more equally distributed. Over the forecast period other smartphone platforms gain ground and by 2015 the landscape looks very different in terms of market share.”

Ovum also suggested that the Asia Pacific region will experience the highest growth, with its share of the global market set to quadruple from 5% in the early phase to 20% by 2015. This growth will be driven by growing use of smartphones in the region coupled with the increased availability of applications with local relevance.