App Market Trends
Born in 2008, the AppStore has completely changed the phone market.
Since then phones has become smartphones and a new era started to catch on.
If you want to know more about the word of apps you are in the right place.
Let’s start!
Some Interesting Data About The App Market
Thanks to the incredible spread of smartphones the market is exploded, experts forecast that the app economy will continue to grow becoming the 3° worldwide economy.
This explosive growth is mainly due to the Asian users and China aspires to become the undisputed leader, replacing the USA
Google and Apple dominate the market of the app with their stores that own the 77% of the app available.
It seems an interesting scenario no?
Let’s dive in with more data.
According to a survey edited by the analysis society App Annie, the application market could reach 6.350 billion of dollars on 2021, becoming the third world wide economy.
On 2008 that market did not even exist. On 2016 had reached 1.300 billion of worth, and the same year, the internet access with smartphone and tablet overcome the internet connection by PCs.
Other statistics suggest that the number of application users will touch 6.3 billion, boosted by new Asian users.
As a matter of fact, the best prospects are related to China where the business could outdo the USA market achieving 2.5 billion of worth.
In line with these data, Statista.com has estimated an amount of 6.5 million of App in 2017, bringing together:
- Google Play (43%)
- App Store (34%)
- Windows Store (10%)
- Amazon Appstore (9%)
- Blackberry World (4%).
China confirm the positive outlook with an overall business of 35 million dollars marking +270% compared to 2015.
The second and the third major markets are USA and Japan.
This perspective is confirmed by Chinese’s bias of using smartphones for various daily activities such as money transfer.
How The App Are Used
Thinking about the app market, there are some questions that come to mind:
- How many apps are in our smartphone?
- How many apps we use daily?
- What are the hottest sectors that dominate this market?
- How much time do we spend each day on our apps?
Let’s answer these questions!
Others curious statistics are related to the use of Apps.
Each citizen has an average of 80 Apps his smartphone, but he uses only half of them.
The hottest sectors are:
- Chats
- weather forecasts
- news
- video streaming
- games
Last but not least, the top 5 social networks are used by over 2 billion people.
Who really get richer from apps?
Is the app market for everyone?
Or there few players that are getting richer, leaving the crumbs to others?
The winners are Google and Apple, this two companies owns the 2 major stores and have a dominant position above all.
They can decide if your app will succeed or not through the first position on their stores that generate a lot of visibility.
But who really get richer? Aside from few big companies which holding about half of the entire market, the remaining part is owned by the 1,6% of independent developers.
For sure the App market is not so democratic!
The reason is quite obvious: App market works as search engines.
Users tend to look at the first results without scrolling the numerous pages. But the first results are the more common and well-known (or those that have paid to stay on the top of the list…).
So, the fairy tale of worldwide developers that follow the project from the insight to the selling, passing through the setting up and the marketing, is unreal.
Of course it has been like that! Pioneers of internet and App who had the right skills and expertise, were able to jump the gun, but it is not so easy anymore.
To climb the “results list”, different knowledge is required, and the team working is imperative.
For this reason, develop application for third parts is more rewarding than try to do it all alone.
Definitely, the real winners are Google and Apple which own the two major stores and have a dominant position. A duopoly that seems hard to undermine, unless of future Chinese surprises.
An app crisis is coming?
At this point, maybe you could ask: “If there are only few apps used daily by users and just a few players get really rich in that market, is there space for someone else?”
There are a lot of elements to analyze when we think about a crisis, surely there is a decrease in the number of downloads of new apps, however new technologies like 5G, new needs that brings to a new demand by the developing countries ecc. keep high the expectations.
As always (and luckily there are) some not everyone agrees with that scenario and who thinks outside the box see a decline in the App business.
A 2016 report provided by Sensor Tower and Nomura research, show a decline in app download which could suggest the market’s maturation.
The study shows a different trend comparing US and global application download.
A monthly basis survey provided by Statista, could confirm a glut in the app market.
The graphic underneath shows the percentage of US smartphone users who downloaded applications on June 2017.
The FAGMA’s land could predict a future downturn but overall numbers still remain on a positive direction and global outlooks are for sure encouraging.
Moreover, downloads data are not the only and better way to foresee the market potential.
Indeed, according to alliedmarketresearch.com, the mobile app market is gaining popularity thanks to some new features:
- A growing number of mobile devices connected to internet.
- Apps are cheaper, light-weight and easier to use than PC’s software.
- Apps are a great solution not only for entertainment purpose but are well valued for business and productivity goals.
- Developing countries are joining the global market bringing new demand related to additional needs.
- New technology such as 5G will boost the interconnection and the industry 4.0 revolution required applications to link machines and humans.
- Peer-to-peer and social networks enhance the data sharing and user’s customization.
The Future Of The App Market
In this final paragraph let’s take a look at the future of the app market.
We will focus on 2 trends:
- How will change the marketplace value?
- What will be the main categories of the app?
The following two graphics show a possible trend of the App market on 2023 compared with 2016.
The first one emphasizes the marketplace value, whereas the second is focused on the application’s type worth.
Looking at the charts it is interesting to note that:
- Third marketplaces will be still open even if the gap from the duopoly Google-Apple increase.
- There is an impressive growth of the gaming application.
