A new study has found that average Android and iOS app sizes have risen considerably as a result.
According to new study conducted by ABI Research, the global average iOS app size across all categories stood at 23MB last month, representing a 16 percent increase from March.
As expected, gaming is the most popular app category, with most apps weighing in at 60MB, which is a 42 percent increase over the last six months.
ABI said the third generation iPad's Retina display is one of the reasons for app size increases, in addition to Apple's revised submission policy. Back in March, it increased the size limits on apps downloaded over mobile networks from 20MB to 50MB.
"Their games can now be more complex and graphically polished, while still being able to benefit from the instant gratification of cellular downloads," ABI senior analyst Aapo Markkanen said.
Meanwhile, the average size of an Android app measured in at around 6MB in September, a 10 percent increase from what it was during March. The size of games for the platform, however, nearly quadrupled to 40MB; Google had also increased the size limit of its apps to 4GB.
Despite the fact that app sizes are increasing, storage capacity on both smartphones and tablets are not experiencing the same rate of development.
"Especially the consumers with 16GB devices are likely to become more conscious about what apps to keep and what to uninstall, so the developers' bar to impress will be getting even higher than it is now," Markkanen explained. "This could also speed up the adoption of the mobile cloud as a storage remedy quite significantly."
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