Study shows size of iOS apps have increased 16% in last six months

According to a new report from the marketing research firm ABI Research, the average size of an iOS app measured 23 megabytes in September, an increase of more than 16% in the last six months.

The increase, it says, can be contributed to number of factors, including the release of the Retina display iPad back in March, and the recent bump in the over-the-air App Store download limit to 50 megabytes….

MacRumors points to the report:

“The flipside of the increasing file-sizes is that the internal storage of smartphones and tablets is becoming a scarcer resource, as the device capabilities struggle to keep up with the requirements of apps and mobile content. Markkanen predicts, “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. This could also speed up the adoption of the mobile cloud as a storage remedy quite significantly.”

Despite the increasing popularity of cloud services, which can store a lot of your content off-device, mobile storage sizes aren’t shrinking. Apple still offers 64GB models of all of its popular mobile products, and it didn’t even make a 16GB 5th gen iPod touch. And as this report reiterates, apps are probably a large reason for that.

With all of this being said, the increase in app size hasn’t affected me at all thus far. Like my last three models, my iPhone 5 is of the 16GB variety. And I have more than enough media stored and apps installed for my needs.

What do you think? Have you noticed a size increase in your favorite apps?