Have you ever wondered how the mobile apps that you use every day are built? How do they actually bring revenue? How many apps are downloaded in a day? How many mobile users are there in the world? Or even how much the mobile market is valued at??? Businesses today demand mobile applications to support their brands on their way to success! Before entering the mobile world, investors and CEOs always check some statistics of the industry and you might want to do the same!
Ptolemay is an experienced team in the mobile app industry and we always keep up with the newest stats that will help our clients move forward! We wanted to share some statistics that you as well might find relevant to your business! Enjoy!
Overview of The Mobile App Market1. By 2023, the number of smartphone users worldwide is projected to grow to 4.3 billion. (Statista)
By today, all of us should understand that in the mobile world that we live in, there is no other option than the technology to go mobile as well! In almost every aspect of our everyday life, we interact with goods, services, firms, groceries, etc., that have a mobile app linked to their company to make our lives easier.
2. Global consumers spend about 4 hours and 20 minutes a day on their smartphones. (App Annie)
With the continuously new features and opportunities that mobile devices offer every year, people tend to use their smartphones more often and longer than in the past years. This indicates a huge and fast-growing industry that you may also consider being a part of in the nearest future.
3. Mobile apps are expected to bring in over $935 billion in revenue by 2023. (Statista)
This kind of revenue is anticipated from paid downloads and in-app ads. A paid app is of course not the best way to go but brand loyalty and possible bonuses to the clientele might be intriguing to many!
4. The average user taps, clicks, and swipes their smartphone 2,617 times a day. (Network World)
Mobile app developers try to create the most consumer-friendly UX/UI to let mobile users have a memorable experience while using an app but to also make them use the app in its most efficient way. Apps want us to click, swipe and tap on different icons, ads, widgets to make us stay and offer different kinds of features. This enables consumers to enjoy the app’s features and generate
revenue for businesses.
5. In 2021, it is projected that over 1.5 billion smartphones are going to be sold to end-users. (Statista)
The number of smartphone producers and the produced smartphones is increasing each year. This means that consumers have a broader choice to buy a mobile device, while many users tend to buy more than one smartphone for different reasons: to separate work and personal life, to be accessible on both Android and iOS, etc.
6. $240 billion USD is how much the global mobile advertising spending is forecast to be by 2022. (Statista)
Mobile advertising is growing at a very fast pace and companies are willing to spend a big sum of money on the industry. However, to go mobile doesn’t necessarily indicate developing an app, it can also be defined as shifting to the mobile advertising industry!
7. 48% of the whole web traffic is coming from mobile devices. (Statcounter)
You now have the chance to overcome and surpass your competitors by entering the mobile world ahead of them. People today use smartphones more often than they do PCs or laptops. One of the reasons behind it is the active and mobile world most of us have to engage in. People are on the go and bringing their PCs and laptops everywhere can be a big trouble maker. The mobile market is growing and taking over the biggest tech spaces. You can be a part of this fast-growing industry and go mobile now to grow bigger later!
Mobile App Users
8. Mobile users worldwide downloaded 218 billion apps in 2020. (Statista)
Smartphone users are offered an enormous variety of apps that they can download to their connected mobile devices. Consumers can download financial apps, purchasing apps, online trading apps, games, learning apps, and many more! Now it is quite understandable that with the creation of new apps, the number of downloads is increasing every year, as it did from 140 billion in 2016 to 218 billion in 2020.
9. The average user of mobile devices has about 80 apps downloaded, while they only use 9 in their everyday routine and 30 on a monthly basis. (Social Media Today)
When people download an app, it does not necessarily mean that they are going to use it every day. Even though mobile users spend a long period of their time on their smartphones, apps should keep their users engaged to be a part of their daily used apps. Apps should try out different ways to keep their consumers engaged in order to make their brand a part of their everyday life.
10. 28% of apps are uninstalled in the first 30 days. (AppsFlyer) 25% of apps are only used once after downloading. (Statista)
When you are developing an app, you should keep in mind that building it is not the finish line. In order to make an app successful, you will need to market it properly, keep users engaged, keep it updated and offer new features on a continuous basis.
11. If a brand has an app linked to their business, they will make 59% of their customers even more loyal! (Google)
Consumers feel a lot more attached to a brand when they can download an app on their smartphone that lets them make a better purchasing decision. A very big proportion of brands already have and others are also considering developing an app to offer their goods and services to consumers through their mobile devices!
Android vs iPhone12. In March 2021, 71.8% of the Mobile Operating System Market Share Worldwide was owned by Android, while only 27.4% was owned by iOS. (Statcounter)
When you want to develop an app, you should always know what platform you have to be on! On the other hand, why bother when you can have an app developed on cross-platforms, just like we do at Ptolemay. Cross-platform development saves you valuable time/money/resources!
13. 80% of iOS devices run on the latest version (Ios14) and less than 1% of Android devices run on the latest version (Android 11). (DigitalTrends)
Android and iOS are both doing a great job updating their OS and offering new features to their users. However, Apple is doing a much better job in keeping its consumers on the latest version of their operating systems than Android. When developing an app, you should always consider the changes that could apply to your app with the updating OS on the platforms.
14. In the top 250 non-gaming apps 79% of consumer spending was driven by iOS apps, while the rest was by Google Play apps. (App Annie)
Even though the biggest proportion of the OS market share was owned by Android, iOS still wins the battle in this category. This should be something to keep in mind when going mobile and developing an app.
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Battle of App Stores
15. Android users have a variety of 2.7 million apps to download from the Google Play app store, while iOS users can choose to download from 1.82 million apps on the Apple app store. (Statista)
Both of the platforms provide a huge number of apps for their users to download. These two are the biggest and most popular leading apps stores as of the end of 2020. Even though Google Play and iOS app stores remove low-quality content from their stores, the number of apps available on both platforms is enormous!
16. As of March 2021, 96.7% of apps on Google Play are available for free and 92.9% of apps on the iOS app store are free. (Statista)
The question is to be free or to a paid app? This is the biggest question you will have to answer when launching your app. You should consider your revenue sources, engagement strategies, user acquisitions, and many more!
17. Mobile users downloaded 29.6 billion apps from the Apple app store in 2018, while they also downloaded 75.7 billion apps from the Google Play app store in the same year. (Sensortower)
The main reason behind such a big difference in downloads on the battling platforms may be the difference in apps available to users as well as the huge gap in the global market share.
18. Apple app store generated $46.6 billion in Worldwide Gross App Revenue in 2018 when Google Play store brought in only $24.8 billion in the same year. (Sensortower)
This is when it gets confusing. Mobile users downloaded far more apps from Google Play, but still, the Apple app store generated a far bigger revenue. This is when you have to make the decision of where you will get the money from ads, paid apps, in-app buying…
Emerging Apps/Categories
19. Social media apps are used most frequently by 39% of global users, 10% are gaming apps, 10% are communication and messaging apps, and 7% retail apps. (The Manifest)
Social media has been conquering the whole mobile and PC market for a while already. Most of the users spend their time passing through the news feed in the social media apps, liking and commenting on their friends’ photos, posting, etc.
20. The most popular app categories in the Apple app store and Google Play by share of available apps in March 2021. (Statista)Apple app store:
- Games
- Business
- Education
- Lifestyle
- Utilities
Google Play:
- Games
- Education
21. The most popular app categories in the Apple app store and Google Play by downloads. (We Are Social)Google Play:
- Games
- Tools
- Entertainment
- Communication
- Photography
Apple app store:
- Games
- Photo & Video
- Entertainment
- Utilities
- Social Networking
22. In 2020 there were around 4.08 billion mobile social media users. (Statista)
The number is associated with the increasing and developing mobile technologies and the availability and accessibility of mobile internet. Therefore, people find it easier to access social media platforms from smartphones due to all the advantages that mobile devices bring with them.
23. Clubhouse is around one year old, has 13 million downloads, is worth one billion dollars, and is already the 16th most popular app in the ‘Social Media Network’ category of the Apple app store. (Backlinko)
With the introduction and huge success of Clubhouse, voice-chat apps have found their voice and are becoming very popular today. Even existing social apps are adding the feature of voice-chatting in order to keep up with the trend. If you are looking forward to developing an app, you may consider a voice-chat app as well, if it fits your needs.
24. The most popular social networks in 2021 as of active users are Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok, etc. (Statista)
It is obvious that most of these apps are chat apps. Chat apps have been popular since the beginning and are so till now. There have been apps emerging that offer new chatting features and opportunities, such as voice-chat apps.
And now?
All these above are a lot of statistics, a lot of numbers, maybe a lot of news for you to get in so fast. In mobile app development, every single one of those stats is going to be crucial. These stats will help you better understand the mobile app market, choose the best platforms, choose the right strategies, revenue sources, target audiences and so many more.
If you are here, it means you want to be a part of this emerging industry. A single idea can transform the market and bring something new to billions of mobile users. If you feel right to discuss any idea or you want to start developing an app, Ptolemay is here for YOU. Enjoy!
| Written by Luka Botchorishvili
