• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, February 25, 2015

Download now, pay later.

It looks like that’s the new mobile app model.

A scant 1% of mobile apps are paid for at the point of download, based on a new global study.

Money for the vast majority of apps now comes from one-off purchases of premium content, advertising and subscriptions, all within the app, according to a study by Juniper Research.

There are some exception categories, such as navigation, where a large fee can be charged at time of download. Juniper cites as one example the Tom Tom series of regional apps, which retail for $50 to $70 at download.

But overall, only 12% of app revenue comes from fees at download with app makers focusing instead on future and ongoing app revenue.

Not all markets are the same in terms of app downloads.

In China, smartphone owners download on average 200 apps per year, compared to 28 apps per year in the U.S.

In the global percentage of app downloads, China leads, by a lot. Here’s the breakdown of the largest app download markets by market share:

• 59% -- China
• 8% -- U.S.
• 2% -- South Korea
• 2% -- Germany
• 2% -- U.K.

The number of apps downloaded is projected to increase 28% this year, passing 235 billion. Consistent with other research, Juniper says games will continue to dominate the download categories.

An issue that retailers have faced for some time has been getting shoppers to use their apps, especially for purchasing.

There’s a difference between downloading an app and consistently using it, of course, and it looks like downloading may not be the big stumbling block.