Mobile apps will outsell CDs by 2012 as the total value of the market could grow to $17.5 billion, according to a new report released Wednesday.

A study by GetJar, the second largest mobile app store in the world, predicts that mobile downloads will climb to 50 billion in 2012, when their revenue of $17.5 billion would eclipse that of CDs ($13.8 billion).

The global market for wireless applications will soon be worth more than the market for traditional music, said Patrick Mork, head of marketing for GetJar.

That's pretty significant when you think the market barely existed a couple of years ago, and now it's expected to grow to more than $17 billion by 2012.

The number of app stores also increased from 8 to 38 last year -- a trend Laurs believes soon will be reversed.

There is no way that this many app stores will survive in the long term and while the value of the global app economy is set to be astoundingly high by 2012, we think only a few app stores will share this revenue, he said.

Meanwhile, a recent report by Canalys projects that 65.1 million smartphones will be sold in North America alone in 2010 - an increase of 38 percent from 2009's 47.2 million.

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