These days, apps seem to make the world go round.  Everyone always has either their smartphones or tablets at hand, be it for sending messages or e-mails, watching videos, and now, for the most part, playing games.  With almost everything available as an app, and with everyone on the planet downloading or subscribing to these wonder apps, it’s no  surprise that Canalys, a team that provides technology analysis, estimates that app stores revenue may reach over $14 Billion by next year.

But more companies have growing concern with the overwhelming number of apps available,  thinking consumers may become confused as to which app to download.  It’s a problem highlighted by the app stores’ poor search and filtering, coupled with the sheer mass of apps available in the marketplace.

‘The leading stores already have hundreds of thousands of apps, so it’s hard for operators to compete with those numbers,” said Canalys Analyst Tim Shepherd. “On the other hand, too much choice brings serious problems in terms of application discovery for both developers and users, which operators can turn to their advantage.”

Most companies are content to make apps and distributing them in popular app stores like the iTunes App Store and Android Market.  But with Apple and Google controlling their marketplaces to varying extents, some companies have opted to create their own branded app stores that are pre-installed in their smartphones or pads.  Cisco has just announced AppHQ, an app store available for their Cius Tablet. 

“While consumers would probably object to operators installing their app stores in place of vendor ones, there is no reason for operators not to pre-install their app stores alongside vendor stores to compete on user experience.”

Now that everything is accessible to anyone at any time, businesses are trying to limit the availability of these apps in work places because it disrupts work hours (yes, I’m talking to you, the one playing Angry Birds instead of finishing your daily report).

Canalys states that mobile apps will greatly affect a person’s life from the time consumers download it to the time they have forgotten that the app ever existed.  Consumers change out smartphones for a variety of reasons, but now app stores are also being considered when buying a new mobile device.

“Mobile apps are a disruptive technology force,” said Shepherd. “Consumers will continue to value mobile device design and functionality, but the quality and availability of certain apps will progressively influence their buying decisions. By building on their strengths, operators can capture more of the market, while delivering a better customer experience.”

It makes you think, with the millions of available apps for you to download, what happens to those apps that users don’t really like?