India's 'application development' (AD) market is likely to reach more than USD 227 million in 2012, thanks to emerging mobile application development and software delivery models.

A 22.6 per cent increase is expected to register in the domestic market compared to the previous year, according to a recent report by technology researcher Gartner, Inc.

Growth will be driven by evolving software delivery models, new development methodologies, emerging mobile application development and open source software, the study said.

"Application modernisation and increasing agility will continue to be a solid driver for AD spending, apart from other emerging dynamics of cloud, mobility and social computing," said Asheesh Raina, principal research analyst at Gartner.

According to a new Gartner report, "Market Trends: Application Development Software, Worldwide, 2012-2016", cloud is changing the way applications are designed, tested and deployed, resulting in a significant shift in AD priorities.

"The trend is compelling enough to force traditional AD vendors to 'cloud-enable' their existing offerings and position them as a service to be delivered through the cloud," Raina added.