New Mobile Stats for 2017 That Help Show Us Where We’re Headed

The new year is always an opportunity for many things. Oftentimes businesses use it as a fresh start, giving them a much-needed chance to re-assess where they are, how they got there and (most importantly) where they’re headed. In terms of mobile application development, the same is undoubtedly true – though people operating in this space have the added benefit of a variety of new statistics that can help shed light on what the digital revolution looks like today and the shape that it will likely resemble tomorrow.

Mobile Apps Are More Important Than Ever

As smartphones continue to dominate the landscape, it should come as no surprise that apps are growing increasingly popular as time marches on. The extent of that popularity, however, is pretty staggering – it’s a trend that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. According to a very recent study conducted by Smart Insights, apps in general now account for 89% of ALL media-related time users are spending on their mobile devices.
This just goes to underline the importance of designing for the user experience in terms of mobile application development. The people have spoken – if you can give them a thoughtful, enjoyable app to complete a particular task, they will choose that app the vast majority of the time.

Usability Matters

One of the most important ideas to keep in mind throughout all of this is that the usability of a device – meaning the experience that you’re able to offer and how enjoyable it is – matters in a big way. Case in point: according to the personalization and customer-experience management firm Monetate’s own Ecommerce research benchmarks, the company revealed that add-to-cart rates among its own customers on average was approximately 8.7%. When you break that down by device, however, things get interesting.

Add-to-cart rates on a desktop came in at 10.4%, while smartphones only managed 6.2%. Add-to-cart rates on a tablet were higher at 10.3%, but still came in below desktops. While it’s true that you could make an argument that people are just more comfortable buying on desktops than they are on mobile devices, it also underlines the importance of the experience. People may not necessarily LIKE desktops better so much as they find it EASIER to buy on a desktop – meaning that in the case of Monetate and others, their mobile platforms could use a bit of additional attention.

Revenue Per Device is Up in a Big Way

Another important statistic about the mobile marketplace in general comes from Solutions Review, which revealed that the amount of revenue being generated per device is expected to continue to grow significantly until at least 2020. Revenue per device in 2015 was $15.42, with a projection of $16.22 expected to be reached by 2020. This is important to know because despite the fact that smartphones are everywhere and despite the fact that this is not a new concept by any stretch of the imagination, there is STILL room for growth on this ever important platform.

A similar pattern is expected in terms of both iOS annual gross mobile application revenue AND Android and similar devices. Mobile application revenue in the iOS ecosystem is predicted to double from its 2015, reaching a high of $44.8 billion in 2020. When you combine mobile app revenue from Google Play and third-party Android Stores, the $18.3 billion number in 2015 will increase to $55.7 billion by 2020.

Looking to the Future

The most important statistics of all for mobile application developers, however, have to do with the increased spend that is predicted over the next few years. According to a Gartner Survey, an incredible 42% of organizations expect to increase their spending on mobile app development by an average of at least 31% by the end of 2016. This means that for as bright as the current environment is for mobile application development, the future is about to get even brighter.

Image designed by Freepik