The use of mobile devices and apps is growing at a tempestuous pace. Smartphones play progressively important roles in people’s lives as mobile apps are used more than ever for entertainment, socializing, shopping and payment purposes. It’s a new change to our lifestyle, apps becoming each year more and more creative and useful.
We are probably witnessing the biggest shift in technology since the emergence of internet. And the future looks bright in the app landscape as the rapid growth in smartphone and tablet sales drives an impressive growth of app downloads.
The intensified growth of apps usage
According to the latest Mobile Future statistics on US apps usage growth, the mobile industry is constantly developing. Here are some facts:
the app economy has created at least 500,000 U.S. jobs and will grow from a $25 billion marketplace this year to $46 billion in 2016.
the average mobile US user has more than 100 apps on his smartphone and spends about 127 minutes a day using them
1.3 million apps are submitted to Apple’s app store alone each year
This infographic designed by Neolane shows how mobile apps have become one of the primary ways people organize their lives, play and communicate. What happened from 2009 to 2012?
2009, total apple app store app download exceed 1 billion
2010, total android market app download exceed 1 billion
January 2011, total apple app store app download exceed 10 billion
December 2011, among smarphone users, app usage surpasses mobile web usage
March 2012, total apple app store app download exceed 25 billion
May 2012, total google play app downloads exceed 15 billion
Neolane predicts 44 billion app downloads by 2016 and app-to-person messaging overtaking text messaging.
Users overwhelmingly choosing apps
Recent studies show that the majority of mobile app users prefer them to the mobile web. According to a Jumptap’s mobileSTAT report, apps currently represent 84% of the network’s mobile traffic, up from 45% two years ago. Why this happened? Apps are easily available and offer increased speed and brows-ability.
As reported by apps analytics company Flurry, people spend an average of 158 minutes every day on their smartphones and tablets. More of two hours of that time is in an app, and only about 30 minutes is in a browser, surfing the web.
According to the mobiThinking compendium of mobile statistics and research, mobile users are currently using apps more than ever. Let’s see some of their statistics:
1.2 billion people worldwide were using mobile apps at the end of 2012
app users spend considerably more time connected than mobile site users
Apple App Store & Google Play are the two largest stores with over 800,000 apps each
the number of app downloads in 2013 range from 56 to 82 billion; in 2017, there could be 200 billion downloads
analysts estimate that app revenues could be US$20-25 billion in 2013; this could triple by 2017
games are the most popular type of app with the users. They also make the most money
Mobile data usage is skyrocketing
A Cisco report suggests that by the end of this year, mobile devices will outnumber people, also predicting there will be more than 10 billion mobile connected devices by 2017.
According to a Portio Research forecast – based on a large study performed last year, downloads will exceed 200 billion per year by the end of 2017, and revenues in 2017 will reach 63.5 billion dollars.
There’s no wrong in saying that mobile is taking over the world. Just check out all those numbers again, what we’ve got is clearly a market in rapid growth. Are you ready for this new kind of business ride? Cause it just might be surprisingly worth it.
