According to research house Flurry, Australians downloaded 28 million apps last week. That’s 46 apps a second. Not too shabby.

But it’s far from topping out there. Despite this being an all time record, no doubt boosted by the Christmas rush, Flurry predicts that 28 million downloads per week will soon become the norm as the addressable smart-phone market continues to grow. And grow it most definitely will, the Telsyte/AIMIA’s Digital Nation Report forecasts 87% of Australians will own a smart phone by 2015, up from 45% ownership in 2011.

Couple this growth in market size with the rapid shift in Internet consumption habits (we now spend more time using apps than the desktop and mobile web put together) and what should now be obvious is that apps are here to stay, they won’t be superseded by some miraculous conception of superfast, easy to use mobile websites. Sure the mobile web will continue to grow but Tim Chang’s ‘Appification of Everything‘ is certainly upon us and the question for big business is no longer whether to invest in apps but what type of app to invest in, what service to provide or process to improve.

This will be the year of service delivery apps as the enterprise starts to realise the potential of business process improvement through mobilisation. For business the fun but ‘throw away’ apps (think branded games and novelty utilities) will be replaced with business critical applications that enable the delivery of new and improved services to customers, members and employees wherever they are.

It’s already beginning, insurance companies are making it easy for members to claim from their phone, tourism authorities are helping tourists to roam free of charges and banks are letting customers shop without cash or cards. These aren’t apps for the sake of apps, once distributed they can’t be thrown away or left unsupported; like the business itself they must evolve, improve and stay relevant. These apps provide valuable services, improve NPS and in some instances single-handedly sway a joining or purchasing decision.

As this realisation takes hold, 2012 will see Australian companies embrace mobile apps to deliver and socialise company services, gather business intelligence data, deliver product recommendations and serve customers in places (and at times) that were previously unserviceable. It will be the year that Australian apps get down to business.