If you’ve never used an Apple iPad or a BlackBerry smartphone, you might not understand all the fuss about “mobile apps”. These little programs allow you to customize your smartphone or tablet computer in an innumerable number of ways. From a GPS and gyroscope enabled star identification program, to an app that turns your phone into a light-saber (well, it makes the right noise), the app market is creating more than just a buzz in your Jedi-knight daydreams.
Recent data released by research2guidance, a Berlin-based market research company, shows that the mobile applications market went from ramp-up phase to a mass market in only 3 years. This is much faster than previous mobile market sectors needed.
The smartphone applications market has delivered impressive growth numbers: Global app downloads increased by 1700%, the user base grew by 1300%, the number of different smart devices in use grew by 800%, the number of apps rose by 500% and even the number of app stores number increased by 300% in the first 3 years.
With application numbers increasing by almost 100,000 apps per quarter on all major app stores, the competition level in a category and platform can change over night. This has an immediate impact on download numbers. Compared to these trends, user behavior and demographics in terms of age, gender, usage time, downloads etc. has not changed so quickly over the last three years but will do when applications are proliferating into the mass market. There will be substantial differences per country and platform and companies should take this into consideration when formulating their application strategy.
Apple dominated the years 2008 and 2009. Since 2010 the hype moved over to Android. With the partnership of Microsoft and Nokia, this might change again as deteriorating average application download numbers on the Android platform might make developers shift their priorities.
The next big question will be: What will be the most promising application types and categories? Currently, gaming apps top the rankings of “most popular apps” with offerings such as Angry Birds and Tiny Wings dominating the market. News and weather apps are also very popular.
By Angela Meadon
