The global mobile industry is in no way showing any signs of demise. Its many variations—the smartphone, app development, wearables, and other devices probably still in inception—will continue to grow as a market.
Android Authority reported that global demand for the smartphone is still at a steady 1.6 percent or half of the initially projected estimate of 3.4 percent. The downturn can be attributed to smartphone owners who are satisfied with their current model and are not looking to upgrade them in the near future. More spectacular is the increase of purchase of wearables which grew by 26.1 percent in the second quarter of 2016, says the International Data Corporation.
The market growth is undeniably remarkable. According to App Annie, over 300 billion apps from Android and Apple alone were downloaded over the course of 2015, surpassing Gartner’s early forecast. As of 2016, both Android and Apple phone users have access to approximately more than 2 million apps, says Destiny.
The app market, which is the backbone of the smartphone industry, is expected to hit the $54 billion mark at a Compound Annual Growth (CAGR) of 16.20 percent over the forecast period of 2014-2020. Among the key factors in its inevitable expansion is the surge in smartphone manufacturing and consumption, brought about by the growing competition on technological advancements among manufacturers.
Demand for innovation
The demand for innovative apps has been the key figure in the rising rivalries among developers, designers, and investors. The gaming and entertainment segment, which dominated almost 40 percent of the entire market in 2013, will still be the ringleaders of the app market until 2017. Messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, Line, and Viber, as well as social networking apps, will also remain fashionable among younger consumers.
One emerging challenger to the app is the bot, an artificial smart helpdesk which uses conversation to help customers navigate through their browsing, search, and online shopping tasks. According to ITech, companies that are actively developing bots are outpacing app designers on a 3: 1 ratio.
Mobile devices, like smartphones, go hand-in-hand with apps. (Source)
According to US-Canada research firm P&S Market Research, the global mobile wallet market will experience a stunning growth of $3155.1 billion in 2020 at CAGR of 52 percent. It said that increasing preference for reward and loyalty programs from service providers will boost the growth the new market’s future.
App content
The growing interest in apps would also enhance content consumption. An analysis published by AdColony in November 2015 showed more consumers getting their content straight from their app for convenience, speed, and accessibility. Since 2014, in-app mobile usage has grown by 56.6 percent, while time spent on browsers fell by 30.4 percent. This has also introduced a major imbalance in the content segment since publishers. Brands are forced to immediately create an app version of their content to keep their readers from transferring to their competitors.
The previous year was also the rise of content curators, which is led by major tech companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Google. Among the innovators in the segment is Born2Invest, the very first and the only global news curator for business and finance the market. It curates business and finance news from revered news firms in more than 20 languages. The app’s uniqueness is expected to open a new, lively market for global and multilingual apps in the near future.
Sub-niches and games
Fortunately, innovations in the mobile market’s sub-niches will support its fast growth. According to Eric Thompson of App Annie, in-app purchases, which include subscription upgrades and add-ons, are here to stay and will still be main revenue forces of the app segment.
Mobile games will also evolve by expanding to various themes, possibly giving birth to another Candy Crush, Pokemon GO and Clash of Clans. App Annie said the mobile gaming segment will face maturity on the aspects of longevity and appeal to gamers. Moreover, investors and producers understand that more consumers are migrating from legacy platforms, like TV, to their mobile devices. This will prompt for them to create more shows on online programming services like Hulu and Netflix.
With regards to the market’s stability, nothing is certain yet. However, everyone knows that it has a huge potential to be bright, especially now that everyone—mobile carriers, telco firms, investors, governments, and even consumers—are now looking at the commercial potential of 5G, the next-level mobile network after 4G LTE. The faster Internet speeds could lure more people, investors, and industries to utilizing mobile phones beyond their current usage.
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