Tablet apps will generate $8.8 billion in revenue this year compared to the $16.4 billion expected from smartphone apps, according to the latest data released Tuesday from ABI Research.

Of the combined $25 billion, Apple's iOS operating system will dominate with 65 percent of its share in global app economy in 2013 followed by Google's Android operating system with 27 percent and the remaining 8 percent will be from other mobile platforms.

The research also says that the overall trend of tablet apps will lead to steady increase their share in the market and will surpass the smartphone apps revenue in 2018. At that point the combined app revenue base will reach $92 billion.

"The dynamic is quite straightforward," said senior analyst Aapo Markkanen. "The larger screen makes apps and content look and feel better, so there are more lucrative opportunities. One might think that the bigger installed base of smartphones would compensate for the disparity, but that notion fails to take into account the arrival of low-cost tablets, which hasn't even started yet at its earnest. The smartphones paved the way for them, but in the end we believe that it's the tablets that will prove the more transformative device segment of the two."

The findings from the ABI Research provide a deep dive into technologies that enable new and transformative applications. The ABI Research also forecasts the economic side of the app industry, sizing the addressable market and measuring how much revenue the apps will generate.

"Apple's share is obviously declining as Android grows," Markkanen told VentureBeat. "By 2018 in terms of tablets it will still be 57 percent, and in terms of tablets plus smartphones, it will still be above 50 percent ... around 52 percent."

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