Phone makers have long told us that the lowly handset would one day replace the mighty PC at the center of our digital lives. People from all economic backgrounds, all over the world are starting to have cell phones and smart phones. Many are now also adopting netbook and tablet technologies. That said, apps are becoming more and more popular and popularity will only continue to grow with the number of smart phones and tablets. Wordpress and many other CMS’s are now mobile friendly and have plugins that integrate with these CMS’s to provide businesses with their own easy to implement mobile app. This technology will in turn make way for many mobile and php jobs. Soon enough, every business may have their own app, much like most have their own website today.
The Growth of Mobile
Stats and figures that will shock you!
Nobody suggests yet that the PC is going away. Running a complicated spreadsheet or editing video still requires a big screen and powerful processors. But evidence is growing that phones are poised to displace PCs for most of our computing.
Here are some benefits as to how an app might help your business.
- PR Tool: smartphone apps in general and iPhone apps in particular are a brilliant opportunity to contact the media and let them know about your company and brand. It doesn’t matter, whether you are a start up or well established brand – media loves to talk about iPhone apps and this is you chance to capitalize on that trend (while the novelty lasts).
- Reach a specialized market: let’s face it, iPhone/smartphone users are a very peculiar cohort: IT-literate professionals, early adopters, internet-savvy – the target market at the time of writing is well defined. If your brand’s target audience is similar – what are you waiting for?
- Improve branding and advertising: give it your best shot! Create something spectacular, something special, something unique – create an app-solutely stunning app. It’s a great opportunity to advertise your brand to a big wide world at a relatively low cost.
- Be at the forefront of innovation: being at the forefront of innovation can be incredibly lucrative. Ask any big brand which created a web-site before its competitors did. Don’t be the one who wonders “what just happened”? Make things happen! The Planet of the Apps will be HUGE and the sooner you embrace change, the more opportunities you will have.
- Revenues: smartphone applications can actually make you money. Depending on what your business is – you can cross-sell, up-sell and simply sell your products via the App Store. Some companies make decent money, a handful of brands managed to make a lot of money, however the vast majority of brands are still using iPhone apps as brand extensions.
- Expectation: believe it or not, but a lot of IT-literate, smartphone-savvy, young professionals expect well-known brands to have an app now, so if you are a leader in your industry – you should start thinking of creating an app.
- Compete with the big guns: it can be difficult to compete with the big guns on the product and service front, but on the App Store – all are equal. Create something unique and stand out from the crowd!
- Competition: with more than 200,000 applications on the App Store, it is highly likely that your competitors do have an app for their products or services. If that is the case – you have to have one as well to keep up with the competition. If they don’t have – lucky you! Get one, to be a step ahead of your competition.
- Get more customers, followers, fans: iPhone and smartphone users are a different breed altogether. You have a good opportunity to appeal to this great crowd. In normal circumstances they may never hear about your brand or use your services. With an iPhone app – you stand a much greater chance to appeal to this great crowd.
- Additional form of contact, interaction and show-off: the more opportunities you have to interact with your clients and show-off your brand, the better. An iPhone app, if nothing else, can be one of those things which helps you to provide additional point of contact to the outside world.
Facts About Mobile Apps
- 1.69% of U.S. smartphone owners downloaded a mobile app as at Oct 2010
(Ask.com and Harris Interactive Research) - The average number of downloads per smart phone user is 27
(The Nielsen Company) - The U.S. mobile app ‘sweet-age-spot’ is 35-44 year-old
(Ask.com and Harris Interactive Research)
- Smartphone users with income above $75,000 were more likely to download mobile apps.
(Ask.com and Harris Interactive Research) - The top ten app categories for 2010 fourth quarter based on page views were games, social networking, music and
entertainment, mail, messaging, education, employment, weather, sports, maps, news/current events, and travel.
(Millennial Media) - We won’t pay or will we? App consumption continue to grow, free app download rates growth is faster
(Distimo) - Over 3 million downloads each day during December 2010 were generated by the top 300 free apps in U.S. while 350,000 paid apps were downloaded daily.
(Distimo) - Paid U.S. app downloads in Dec 2010 were 30% higher than June 2010 which shows that consumers are willing to pay for mobile apps.
(Distimo) - Three different app payment options have emerged: paid app, free app with in-app purchases and paid app with in-app purchases.
(Distimo) - Average mobile app price has decreased since January 2010
(Distimo) - Total global mobile applications market is projected to be worth $25 billion by 2015 – currently it’s exploded to $38B, predicted now to grow to $58B in the next 12-18 months.
(World Mobile Applications Market 2010–2015 Research) - Apple’s App Store will account for about one in five dollars of the total global mobile applications market in 2015
(World Mobile Applications Market 2010–2015 Research) - The global mobile applications market is expected to have a CAGR of 29.6% from 2009 to 2014 – compound annual growth rate.
(World Mobile Applications Market 2010–2015 Research)
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