GigaOM Pro

As we wrap up the year and take a look at what 2013 might hold, GigaOM Pro readers are paying special attention to the consumer and enterprise markets. This week research content about the app marketplace, IT spending, and the future of OpenStack was particularly popular.

With Facebook’s billion-dollar acquisition of Instagram still fresh in many people’s minds, Hans Hartman’s “An overview of the photo and video app market” is an especially timely analysis. While Instagram is undeniably the gold standard in photo app success stories, the photo and video app market is crowded, with over 16,000 apps listed in the iTunes Store alone. Hartman dives into Android and iOS app sales data to create a leaderboard and analysis of the top 10 apps for both operating systems to identify major trends and use cases. His report also takes a close look at sales and download data, ratings, and notable acquisitions to determine if the well-saturated photo and video app market is reaching a breaking point.

Next, in  “IT spending update, fourth quarter 2012,” Ralph Finos takes a look at the year in global IT spending — a broad category that includes mobile devices, hardware, software, and a wide range of products and services. While the industry spent nearly $1.76 billion, 2012 was marked by cautious spending. Finos provides a detailed segment growth analysis, looking at key indicators that will shape market growth and determine spending trends for 2013.

Last, in “A progress report on OpenStack,” David Strom details the open-source cloud-management product, which has enjoyed significant growth and development over the past year. While AWS is still the dominant player in the public and private cloud market, OpenStack is gaining interest from the developer community and from several major deployment partners. Strom provides his thoughts on where OpenStack may go next, and he offers some pointers to those who are considering OpenStack over other cloud deployments.

Also popular this week:

Forecast: the future of near field communication

The wearable-computing market: a global analysis

Unlocking big data’s potential with search