A mobile app is a type of application software, that can be downloaded and accessed from a phone, tablet, or music player. The usage of mobile apps is a new trend and is expected to gain popularity in the years to come. There are several apps available on phones and tablets for various activities such as online shopping, E-books reading, games, music, online communication, ordering food, booking travel tickets, finding answers to questions, meditation, medical and pharmacy, etc.
What type of personal data can apps request access to?
Apps can request access to:
- phone and email contacts
- call logs and messages
- Internet data
- calendar data
- data about the device’s location
- the device’s unique IDs
- photos
Types of apps:
Native apps
- iOS on Objective-C or Swift
- Android on Java
- Windows Phone on Net
Hybrid apps
Web apps
Native apps: These apps are developed for a single mobile operating system and are therefore called native for a platform or device. These apps are in-built into the device for systems such as iOS, Symbian, Android, Windows phone, and Blackberry. The advantages of these native apps include high performance and a good user experience.
Hybrid apps: Hybrid apps are developed using multi-platform web technologies. Hybrid multi-platform apps are faster and relatively easy to develop.
Web apps: Web apps use browsers to run and are usually written in HTML5, JavaScript, or CSS languages.
Types of App Stores:
The two giant and well-known app stores are Google Play for Android, App Store for iOS, and Microsoft Store for Windows, among others.
Google Play – It is a type of international online software store developed by Google for a wide range of Android devices, which was launched on 28 August 2008.
App Store – It is a digital distribution platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps, and the iPhone App Store was launched on 10 July 2008.
Microsoft Store – Microsoft store, also known as Windows Store, is a digital distribution platform developed by Microsoft, which was launched on 22 October 2009.
Others – Others include Amazon Appstore, BlackBerry, Ovi (Nokia) for Nokia phones, Samsung Apps, Opera Mobile Store, and others
Apps by Categories:
The below-mentioned apps are available on iOS, Bada, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry OS, MeeGo OS, Palm OS, Symbian OS, and WebOS.
Shopping Apps – It is application software that typically runs on mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, and PCs over an Internet connection
- Some of the shopping apps include: Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Target, Walgreens, Walmart, Best Buy, Zappos Mobile, and others
Business apps – Business apps are also referred to as productivity apps and are used for activities such as buying, sending emails, billing, booking, and tracking work progress. Business apps may vary from B2B applications used in office and personal apps.
- Some of the business apps include: Indeed-Job Search, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Voxer Walkie Talkie Messenger, Facebook Pages Manager, Dragon Dictation, Square Register – Point of Sale, and others
Educational apps – By playing educational game apps, kids can learn while they play. Educational apps are useful for teachers as well in order to organize a teaching process, educate themselves, etc.
- Some of the educational apps include Duolingo – Learn Languages for Free, Photomath – Camera Calculator, Quizlet: Flashcard & Language App to Study & Learn, Lumosity – Brain Training, TED, etc.
Entertainment apps – These apps have a trend to invoke a kind of dependency and keep individuals engaged, logged in, and always checking for updates
- Some of the entertainment apps include: Netflix, Dubsmash, Talking Tom Cat, Amazon Prime Video, NBC – Watch Now, Stream Full TV Episodes, and others
Gaming apps – Gaming apps are gaining a popular subset of app development with technology such as virtual reality, currently. A gaming app is one of the main entertainment features of smartphones. Most gaming apps have been developed to target the younger generation or the Millennials, however, there are various apps for individuals from all age groups who are becoming increasingly tech-savvy.
- Some of the gaming apps include: Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, Angry Birds Go, Temple Run, Solitaire, and Trivial Crack, among others
Lifestyle apps – A lifestyle app is accelerating the individual facets that define a lifestyle and is the biggest uptick of app development in recent years. Lifestyle apps are designed to make life easier for users and are effective in their various spheres. The lifestyle apps help business people to conduct business and people who pay attention to a healthy lifestyle, etc. These apps offer various lifestyle-related needs such as fashion, news, culture, travel, health, recreation, and leisure.
- Some of the lifestyle apps include: Fitness apps, Travel Apps, Food & Drink apps, Dating apps, Music apps like Spotify and Apple Music, Tinder, Text Free, AroundMe, PINK Nation, DailyHoroscope, and many others
Utility apps – Most used apps on a daily basis are utility apps. Users are adopting these apps as it helps them to get things done early and easily.
- Some of the utility apps include: Bitmoji – Your Personal Emoji, Flashlight, QR Reader, Speed test, My Verizon, myAT&T, Google translate, Applock, and others
Travel apps – These apps are designed to make traveling easier, more comfortable, informative, and fun-filled for users. While some apps are helping in locating a route other apps guide users through unknown locations using maps. There are travel apps that offer translation assistance to users as well.
- Some of the travel apps include: Google Earth, Uber, United Airlines, Fly Delta, Airbnb, and others
Key Mobile App Facts
- There are over 2.9 million apps available for download on the Google Play Store globally.
- As of April 2020, The Apple App Store has 4.2 million total active apps available for download.
- There has been a 65% increase in downloads of medical apps due to Covid-19 over worldwide.
- 36% of Internet users are spending more time on mobile apps during the pandemic situation.
- Tinder generated more revenue than any other non-game app in 2019
- In 2020, every minute 400,000 apps are downloaded from Play Store and App Store
- In 2019, according to Google, there are more than a billion active Google Play users around the world in more than 190 countries.
- According to Google, more than 94 billion apps were downloaded from Google Play between May 2017
to May 2018. - In 2019, according to Google, Play Movies is available in 117 countries, and Play Books, home to the world’s largest selection of eBooks, with more than 5 million titles in 75 countries.
- The world’s smartphone users downloaded more than 200 billion mobile apps in 2019
- 21% of Millennials open an app 50+ times each day.
- 49% of people open an app 11+ times every day.
- 57% of all digital media usage is from mobile apps.
- On average, a smartphone owner uses 30 apps each month.
- Downloads of top-five food delivery apps doubled between 2016 and 2018.
- China is the biggest iOS download market in the world.
- India is the biggest Google Play download market in the world.
- On average, about 120 billion hours are spent on mobile games annually by individuals.
- In 2019, according to Google, Android is operating on over 2.5 billion active devices.
- Google Play Protect scans over 50 billion apps every day.
Upcoming Android Apps in 2019
- Adobe Premiere Rush
- Appy Weather
- CalorieCap
- Firefox ScreenshotGo Beta
- Luminary
- MIUI-ify
- Pixtica
- Pocket Mode
- Sphaera
- Spotify Stations
App Store Statistics:
- As of April 2020, there are 937,009 active Gaming apps, which is making up 22.17% of the total active apps available for download in the App Store.
- As of April 2020, there are 427,127 active business apps, which make up 10.11% of the total active apps.
- As of April 2020, there are 367,003 active education apps, which is 8.68% of total downloadable apps.
- As of April 2020, there are 364,290 active lifestyle apps, 8.62% of total downloadable apps.
- As of April 2020, there are 253,639 active utility apps, 6% of the total downloadable apps.
- As of April 2020, there are 246,856 active entertainment apps, 162,180 travel apps, 144,626 food and drink apps, 95,303 shopping apps, and 95,038 social networking apps in the App Store.
