Mobile Apps Market Size: Interesting Facts You Need to Know in 2015

The upsurge in smartphone usage is driving the mobile applications market to greater heights. With over 1 billion smartphone devices sold in 2015, the demand for mobile apps has exploded in growth than seen in the past year and earlier.

In 2014, more adults spent more time browsing the web from their mobile devices than they did on personal computers. By using smart mobile devices, the average person is spending about 30 hours glued to around 24 mobile apps each month. The latest studies indicate that this trend is just beginning and shall continue to show up in most industry reports up until, at least, 2019.

Currently, there are over 3.2 million mobile apps all ready for download from various platforms. If you are out wondering what to do with these statistics, here is a breakdown of the mobile apps market size and what you can do to reap maximum benefits.

1. Market share

Android leads the way with the highest share of the apps cake with a mobile apps market size of 82.8% in 2015 Q2, according to data supplied from a recent survey of mobile app developers by the International Data Corporation. 

According to another report by Vision Mobile, more mobile app developers (71%) are into creating android-based apps than for any other mobile OS. This is highlighted by the fact that more android apps developers are earning more (even working full-time) from android apps than second placed IOS from Apple Inc. and third placed, Windows from Microsoft.

Interestingly, while IOS devices dominate the North American and Europe market, Android has the rest of the global apps market in its pocket. Microsoft’s Windows mobile is third with less than a million apps in its platform.

2. B2C wins over B2B

B2C mobile apps are emerging tops over B2B apps as far as sales go. This has led more developers to focus their creative energy towards enterprising apps out to connect with consumers directly. 

Generating sales is most important to any business, and nowhere is this observation working better than in the mobile applications market. Demand for mobile apps aimed at easing access to products and services information, technical support and guiding buyers through self-care procedures such as checkout in an online shopping app, currently outstrips supply. 

3. Enterprise apps outsell Consumer apps

Data supplied by more research indicates that while consumer apps have the potential to go viral, and a significant number have, revenue generated from them continues to trail behind usage. 

On the other hand, developers that have targeted the enterprise have reaped significantly with a good number switching operations to focus entirely on enterprise mobile apps development. 

4. Up-selling is the new revenue generator 

Instead of selling their apps from the start, many developers are opting to offer their product for free download for a given timeframe. After the trial period expires, these developers are using up-selling and upgrade prompts to seduce businesses into buying full versions of their apps.

On the other hand, upsell strategies are locking out small developers and new developer teams from making much from selling their apps. In addition to weakened marketing budgets, up-selling is being blamed by small developers for locking users of particular mobile apps from trying out and buying alternative apps—different from the ones they currently use. This is despite the fact that new or small time mobile apps developers can do a better job than veterans. 

5. Mobile apps for small businesses

Mobile apps are not only a preserve of the medium and large businesses. Small businesses have over the past two years risen in mobile development and account for a significant portion of the mobile apps market size in 2015. 

In fact, small business mobile apps development is fast rising as more small business owners realize how mobile apps usage can help grow small businesses. Tasks such as online payments, accounting and customer service list high up as the most popular areas of interest for this market. 

This means mobile apps development for small businesses is soon to become a booming business for developers, and according to Vision Mobile, it is an opportunity worth about $25 billion in U.S alone. 

Bottom line

From the break-down above, it is clear that small businesses looking to engage more customers can gauge which mobile OS is most preferred by their customers to understand which platform top base their apps development on. Additionally, developers can also use the same information to get a better understanding of where their efforts are most likely to pay off and earn them the most revenue. Hopefully this information helps you to decide what will work in your unique case.