Mobile applications are one of the fastest-growing segments of the high-tech economy, with some analysts estimating an $11 billion industry by 2014. A report by the Yankee Group projects that U.S. consumers this year will spend $1.6 billion downloading apps that make mobile devices more fun or useful.

But Americans and Canadians are paying a premium for that luxury. A study released Wednesday found that, on average, users in the U.S. and Canada pay more than five times more for apps than users in other parts of the world, accounting for 50 percent of global app revenue.

Top Dollar

The technology and strategy consulting firm Chetan Sharma analyzed figures from developers, carriers and equipment manufacturers to come up with the data for Getjar, which is believed to be the second-largest app seller after Apple.

It found that North Americans on average shell out $1.09, the highest sum in the world, for apps that sell elsewhere for less than 20 cents.

Chetan Sharma’s research found that Europeans generally pay less than 80 cents for apps, while the lowest average sales prices (ASP) were, in descending order, in South America, Asia, and the Middle East/Africa. All those consumers pay less than 20 cents, the study said.

“It is evident that the business models required for the emerging markets will be quite different than the western markets, as the market economics and dynamics are quite different,” the study says. “For the emerging markets, it is a volumes game. while the ASPs will be smaller, if an overall strategy is executed well, the volume of data usage and app downloads can make up for the smaller per-unit revenues (either from paid downloads or advertising).”

Chetan Sharma noted that while smartphones are less common outside the U.S., “application downloads in emerging markets can actually exceed downloads on smartphones in western markets.”

Still Cheap

Even if Americans pay more, the explosion of the app market is a sign that they view mobile apps as cheap and are often willing to buy a new program first and decide how fun or useful it is later, especially when many offer free trials.

But the app market may get more expensive in coming months. Apple has just added a new feature to iTunes Connect that allows developers to schedule a single price change or consecutive increases for their products. while that will make it easier to create promotions, it could also pave the way for prices to rise with demand.

“This is an easy add-on that will give developers a little more say in how their work is marketed in a tightly controlled distribution system,” said Jeff Burstein, program manager for Mobile Applications. “This is one of the reasons why companies need to have a complete mobile strategy that will allow for simple distribution to as large a market segment as possible. some companies can get bogged down in the approval process and neglect other platforms or upgrades due to restrictive budgets.”

Building a smartphone-app inventory may become an even more expensive undertaking once carriers begin tiered pricing plans that charge heavy data users more than casual users, as At&T and Verizon Wireless have signaled they will do.

“The tier pricing will mainly impact how much data you can access over a specific time period,” said J.D. Power and Associates analyst Kirk Parsons. “So if you are a heavy apps user or download a lot of files, then you will be impacted severely, unless they come up with a separate plan” that includes a fixed price for unlimited downloads.