MOST POPULAR MOBILE APPS

WHAT MOBILE APPLICATIONS ARE OF THE HIGH DEMAND?

By 2025, mobile apps are forecast to generate around $189 billion in revenues via app stores and in-application advertising. Some of the most popular operating system-native stores are Apple's App Store, Google Play, as well as Windows Phone Store and BlackBerry App World. As of March 2017, there were 2.8 million available apps at Google Play Store and 2.2 billion apps available in the Apple’s App Store, the two leading app stores in the world.

Whereas mobile apps were originally offered as productivity and information retrieval tools such as calendars, e-mail and weather information, the market has rapidly expanded due to users’ demand and availability of developer tools. The most popular app category among Apple iOS users is utilities, followed by social networking, photo and video and games. Tools, communication, video players and edit, travel and local are the leading Android app categories in the world. In the United States, mobile users spent the majority of their digital time – which varies greatly according to their age group – with mobile music apps. Instant messaging apps are the second most popular mobile app category. Indeed, mobile messenger and social apps have experienced a surge in popularity not only in the United States, but also worldwide. WhatsApp, the leading mobile messaging app in the world, has 1.2 billion monthly active users as of 2017 (according to Miomobi.com).

We will have a closer look at some popular mobile application categories of 2017 – 2018:

 MESSENGERS

Mobile messaging apps are more popular than ever as they add social networking features, improve security and compete to meet the demand for free mobile calling and texting services. Established mobile apps like Facebook Messenger, Apple Messages and internet calling service Skype still dominate, but they have a bevy of promising competitors. Almost all offer some form of free voice calling and free mobile texting, either over Wi-Fi or the user's smart phone data plan.

For business owners, we will particularly focus on how your business can benefit from the use of the messenger, such as Facebook Messenger.


According to SocialMediaExaminer.com, when Messenger first became available for business pages, Facebook users could message page owners and the page owners could reply.

Now, page owners can respond to anyone who has commented on their page, privately or publicly. To keep privacy levels in check, businesses can’t download the email addresses of fans nor can they initiate conversations with users. The ability to direct message your audience is extremely powerful, especially since Facebook would rather have users stay on their platform (rather than jumping over to email).

More than 89% of users access Facebook on their mobile devices and they check Facebook 14 times a day. Those people have an intimate relationship with Messenger. When your company starts conversations with users, you’re befriending them on that level. This is how to change business relationships into personal ones. Globally, Facebook continues to roll out Messenger features designed to help businesses efficiently manage their communications.

MUSIC APPS 

Music is a major part of our lives, and we can’t go without having our favorite tracks on our smartphones. However, due to storage limitations, we have to skip adding a few songs just to fit the ones that we love more. Thankfully, with the world of music streaming apps, we don’t have to worry about that.

The name “Spotify” instantly pops up in our mind whenever someone talks about music streaming. The tips we've collected below, which apply to premium Spotify accounts, can help you get the most value out of your $10 a month. From saving on data usage to keeping your playlists for posterity, there's much more to Spotify than you might have realized.  
  Spotify has been just great for music streaming and it’s among the most popular free music apps ever. It boasts a generous library, curated stations and playlists, and the ability to create your own stations and playlists if you so choose. The free version of the service isn’t as robust as the paid version, but there are still plenty of things to like about Spotify’s free service. The app also comes with some light Material Design, Chromecast support, and the tablet version actually has more features than the mobile version.  

E-COMMERCE MOBILE APPS 

According to SingleRain.com, Mobile apps have taken the world by storm. There really is an app for almost anything, and e-commerce is not one to get left behind.
 More and more e-commerce businesses are creating apps of their own and it seems that this is one good step for the industry. As mentioned above, retail giant Target saw a 200% increase in sales via mobile app last Black Friday. Amazon and Walmart amassed a huge amount of revenue by starting their Black Friday deals early via their mobile apps. Apps garnered 66% of mobile app sales in Q4, and posted better conversion rates than the mobile web:


E-commerce itself has changed the way that people shop. Prior to online retail, people had to dress up, gas up and drive up just to shop. Traffic is slow, malls are jam-packed, and that’s not the worst part. Many times, after all that hassle, you go home empty handed because you couldn’t find what you needed. Then came online shopping. You can stay in your pajamas, switch on your computer, and find exactly what you want. And within a relatively short time, your item will be delivered to you at home! How convenient!

On top of the convenience, there are also lots of good deals and promos that can make buying online cheaper than going to a brick-and-mortar store to shop. The time and money saved by online shopping has made it a good and, to a certain extent, better alternative. Mobile apps for e-commerce businesses are once again changing how shopping is done. The convenience of online shopping is being made even more convenient. With a single tap on the app’s icon, you will be led to a store’s product offerings. A little scroll or swipe, and you are sure to find the perfect product for you!  
  

CONCLUSION 

The mobile application industry is huge and growing daily, and there is no end in sight. Expectedly, the mobile developer population has boomed, and the number of mobile apps in the market has hit new heights. The revenue generated by the global mobile app industry has skyrocketed.

According to the Mobile Apps market report, one of the major drivers for this market is growth in the use of mobile devices. The adoption of mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones, is increasing across the world. In 2016, the smartphone market increased to1.59 billion units from 1.44 billion units in 2015. 331 million units of tablets were shipped in 2016. The availability of inexpensive mobile devices is the major reason for the increase in the adoption of mobile devices. It is also leading to the development of several mobile apps in the developed and developing markets.

Mobile now represents two out of three minutes spent on digital — and people also spend most of that time in apps. Mobile apps on their own now drive the majority of digital media time spent — 54 percent.

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