Online retailer Handango has released its quarterly "Yardstick" for mobile software sales.

According to the report, the second quarter of 2003 showed steady demand for mobile software, with the average number of applications purchased per user falling just slightly to 2.1 from 2.14 in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the average selling price of applications increased to $16.36, up from $16.25 in the first quarter.

Handango said the pace of new application development slowed to more established levels in the second quarter when developers released 5,410 new applications, down from an all-time high of 7,467 new applications in the first quarter of 2003. The sales distribution across categories remained virtually unchanged from the first quarter.

The Yardstick for the second quarter focused on the growing global market for applications with the best-selling applications localized in French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. A few applications claimed a top seller spot in several languages, such as Breakout for Java and Agenda Fusion for Pocket PC.

According to Handango, the market for non-English applications is hottest in Japan, with more than 54 percent of sales coming from Japanese language applications. Among European languages, German, French and Spanish claimed the top spots with 21 percent, 14 percent and 7 percent of unit sales respectively.

"The growth of the global software market has been astounding," said Laura Rippy, CEO of Handango, in a company release. "As this quarter's report indicates, software developers who localize their applications stand to grow sales significantly."

The Handango Yardstick also reports the buying habits of repeat software consumers. Based on a repeat buyer survey, Handango discovered that the average software consumer who has purchased two or more times has added more than 10 third-party commercial software applications to his or her mobile device.