Before you begin developing an application, it is important to know your audience and the environment your application will be competing in. What kind of applications are popular in the app store? How are applications being used? We will review some of the upcoming and past trends that can help you determine the best route for your mobile presence.
The average number of applications a US smartphone user uses is 27. Of these, users spend almost 85% of their time in just 5 of them. The time users are spending in applications has been increasing and hit 37 hours and 28 minutes per month in Q4 of 2014. The number of applications carried in the App Store and Play Store is on a steady upward trajectory.
With the increase in competition and people being more particular about which applications they use, you want to make sure your app makes an impact. Gaming applications particularly will need to hustle to keep up. In Jan 2015, the game category in the Apple App Store had the largest share of available apps at 21.14%. Games also appear to have an incredibly high rate of abandonment, second only to sports apps. In a study started March 2014, it was found that 22% of game applications were only accessed once during the first six months of ownership.
When building an application it is important to realize competition is high and will only increase. Not only will you need to work to get users to download your application initially, but also create functionality and a user experience that will keep them coming back. You must know how your application will stand out from the competition. What makes your app unique? What need does it fill? What other apps are offering similar solutions? How will you entice users to continue using the application?
Flurry, a company specializing in mobile analytics, reports they saw a 76% increase in usage in last year. They measure usage in sessions, where the number times a user opens and spends time in an application is recorded. A total of 2.079 trillion sessions were tracked in 2014. In 2014, media, entertainment, and gaming sessions saw double digit increases. The growth of productivity, shopping, and communication applications were particularly explosive with triple digit increases.
So what does this mean? When users use their phones for shopping or work, they are putting a larger amount of trust in the applications they use. From credit card numbers to trade secrets, there is a lot of confidential information being entrusted to applications. Trust can be gained in many ways. Positive reviews, excellent customer service, and being transparent with the user on how their information is used are all great starts
Keeping an eye on the trends in mobile can give you the knowledge to succeed when creating an application. At the very least, your application needs to fill a need that will stand out in the store, keep your users involved, and gain users’ trust. You want your application to be one of those 27 a user uses, preferably one of the 5 that are used most often. Metova offers strategy sessions in order to get a good look at your application and make suggestions to help your app stand out.
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