10 Significant Facts And Stats For Mobile App Growth in 2021

• By Yen
• 12-07-2021
• Mobile Apps

Mobile applications have become the essentials of the smartphone. Free or paid, they are mostly downloadable on Android and IOS platforms. Formerly functional, today's mobile apps are turning to professionals and becoming valuable sources of data for them, but also a new way of interacting and keeping in touch with users.

The boom in mobile apps is also seeing the emergence of new sectors (m-marketing, big data, etc.), new business models (in-app purchases, mobile advertising) and new professions (application developers).

The main aspects in mobile apps that developers need to focus on are making apps more user friendly, their ability to address the constantly changing needs and wants of the current generations, presentability, and of course, attractiveness.

10 Valuable Stats on Mobile App Growth for 2021
So let’s look at what’s in store for Mobile Apps with these 10 important statistics that will surely change the world of mobile app development this 2021.

1. The Number of Mobile Users Worldwide is Growing
Mobile has become our gateway to the outside world and the time spent on applications in the “home activities” categories is expected to exceed 1.3 billion hours worldwide on Android in 2021. 2021 predicts in effect an explosion and an advantage in home activities. The latter will be the epicenter of our social and professional activities.

Work and education applications development are expected to show an average annual growth rate of 57% and 62%, respectively, in 2021. This is partly thanks to the increasing use of video conferencing applications such as ZOOM. Couch commerce (or m-commerce) is poised to become the primary form of consumer purchasing. Delivery applications are adapting to meet strong demand and develop means of delivery while respecting social distancing measures.

2. Increase in Number of Mobile Applications
It is estimated that there are 67 applications in a smartphone, but 25 are only used per month. As the storage capacities of mobile devices are increasingly extended, users would have an average of 100 applications.

Unfortunately, most remain unused, with only 10 opened per week, for a maximum of 30 in all. 80% of users download a new application per week, one in 6 downloads between 2 and 5 and 1 in 20 acquire more than 6.

The number of apps on the Apple store was close to 4 million in 2017 compared to 2 million apps on Google Play during the same period.

More than 75% of the world’s population used smartphones in 2019. There are also 27 million active users for Android compared to 9.5 million for iOS according to Statista.

However, despite these big differences in numbers, there is evidence that iOS users have higher purchasing power. The Apple company generated three times more revenue than Google.

It is not enough to choose the platform with the highest number of devices. Choose well according to the profile of your target users. If you want to set up an application for your employees, you should check the operating system of their mobile devices.

3. Total of Global Mobile Advertising Expenditures
2019 was a pivotal year for smartphones. Consumer spending grew 20% over-year in the first 3 quarters annually, with a record $ 23 billion coming from the Google Play and iOS App Store combined in the third quarter 2020.

2021 is expected to be an even bigger year for the app economy, with global users spending from Google Play and iOS reaching $111 billion. A large part of this growth will be subscription services, with the mobile Games becoming the most recent vertical to take advantage of this trend towards monetization. Outside of app stores and download sites, mobile ad spend will account for an even larger share of the market - mobile ad spend can hit from $190 billion in 2019 up to $ 240 billion in 2020.

There are several formats of advertising space that can be purchased on the Internet: banners, cobblestones, videos, etc., however, all operate on the same principle: they are displayed on sites frequented by Internet users and are used to distribute a commercial message to them in addition to contents of the visited site.

4. Frequency of Mobile Internet Access
More than 2/3 of the world's population today use smartphones (67%), while almost 60% is using the Internet. More than nine in ten internet users worldwide connect tru mobile devices, which makes up for about 91% of all internet users. Most users prefer mobile devices when surfing social media.

Analysis reveals that 99% of social media users worldwide access it through mobile devices, but barely one in five use a desktop or laptop. Global social media users rose to 4.14 billion in 2020. And it keeps accelerating even more in 2021.

5. Use of Mobile for Purchase
More than 5 billion people all over the world own a smartphone. These small devices are now part of our daily lives, both personally and professionally, especially through mobile applications. These software are multiplying and their usefulness is more and more obvious to manage daily life.

According to Statista, e-commerce purchases via mobile devices have increased significantly since 2013. At the end of this year, it was around 961 million euros. This figure is expected to exceed 1 billion in 2018.

About 60% of online shopping is done using mobile devices. According to Google, 80% of customers start their purchase on one device and end on the other.

Google also states that 50% of mobile app consumers come from the US, UK, and Asia Mobile commerce is expected to become as important as e-commerce. Therefore, having a mobile shopping site store is no longer a luxury, but an inevitable aspect. While most businesses have already started to upgrade their sites to a full mobile store, a big gap still exists. In a world where there is a lot of competition at every step of the way, having a website is not going to get you the income you want.

6. Increase in No. of Mobile Gamers
Mobile gaming is doing well. In the first quarter of 2020 alone, more than 1.2 billion to 1.75 billion mobile gamers per month were recorded. This is according to a report published by Sensor Tower which shows a 27% increase in turnover for the sector in the second quarter of 2020, compared to results recorded last year in the same period. Result: $ 19 billion in sales despite the drop in smartphone sales caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Containment has benefited the mobile gaming industry. While many sectors have suffered from the pandemic of 2020, this is clearly not the case with mobile gaming, on the contrary. The sector saw a real peak in May with a turnover of 6.6 billion dollars recorded, iOS and Android platforms combined.

Without a doubt, confinement played its role in this record: while nearly 2 billion people around the world have found themselves confined to their homes, their mobile has become their best ally. This is a trend that has also been noticed among the largest social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, which also saw peak audiences during this same period.

7. Preferences on Free vs. Paid Apps
Paid apps are those that you buy at the app store, they have a price next to them. Free apps just have a sign that says “download” next to them. Free apps are paid for by companies or groups by means of ads. A lot of companies prefer to spend on ads in apps, unlike users. Most users prefer the free apps despite the offers that paid apps advertise, and despite the fact that nobody likes ads.

Statistics by 42matters says that “91% of Apple app store apps are free, whereas free apps in Google Play store reach 96.2%. If you’re starting out and you’re figuring out a way to earn revenue with mobile apps, it’s going to be tricky in the beginning, but it’s all going to rest on how you want your app to appear in the market.

8. Mobile App Development has a Full Market
Going mobile is gradually becoming the cornerstone of the global economy. The use of mobile applications continues to grow rapidly, and internet players, like Facebook, are devoting more and more resources to its growth. In fact, numerous reports indicate that with the widespread adoption of mobile devices, mobile applications represent a new decade of opportunity. A few figures: According to Statista, the number of free apps in the 3rd quarter of 2019 was 1.8 million.

This is mainly due to the amount of people opting to switch to digital transactions. With the global pandemic of 2020 even people who prefer the physical way of things are forced to embrace mobile methods. This shows us that everyone can transition to digital ways of transacting and that age and background are not factors.

One thing that is constant with all this change is competition and that’s entirely a bad thing. Competition may make it difficult for developers to come up with new ideas to attract app users, but it keeps the market alive and growing.

9. Income Streams for Mobile Apps
Making your application an effective source of income is a goal to set to perform in the mobile world. The monetization of its mobile application can be managed in different ways.

2019 stats show that 95% of Android apps are free, and 90% iOS apps are free. Other sources show that mobile apps will rise up to $189 billion by 2020.

There are indeed several monetization solutions depending on the field of activity in which you operate. It's best to consider 4 main types of monetization: paid applications, freemium applications monetized via advertising, freemium applications monetized by In App Purchases and so-called transactional applications.

In any case, it is essential to understand the income generated by each mobile user (regardless of the monetization technique employed) in order to compare it to the cost of acquisition of each user. The objective is obviously that the cost of acquisition is lower than the income per user.

10. Design and Performance Matters
Strengthening your mobile presence is no longer an option, it is now a necessity: there are so many users on mobile that it is impossible today for any designer not to consider a mobile application or a mobile version. from its website. But it is not enough to offer mobile users an application or a mobile site, the associated user experience must be satisfactory.

Providing a better user experience promotes sustainable customer engagement, employee efficiency, and therefore business goals. Experience has become a determining factor in the success of a website, business application or any other digital product.

A Google study says that "61% of mobile users do not like and abandon applications/sites that they've had a bad experience with”.
UX takes on such an important role that it recognizes the success of that same service or product, or its lower preference with users, its rejection and therefore, ultimately, its failure.

It is not certain that all companies have realized the decisive role of UX Designer. Some decision-makers still believe that they can do without it or have internal skills without questioning the rigor of the necessary methods. UX Design is not a polish that sells, internally reassures, gives the feeling of being in the trend of the moment, it is a profound reconsideration of the design itself. There is still some way to go to change mentalities, convince and raise awareness, again and again!

Conclusion (Takeaway)
The mobile economy will continue to develop at lightning speed. Since 2014, there are more mobile users than Internet users! The rapid development of smartphones and touchscreen tablets is prompting companies to create their own mobile application for the general public. It’s impossible not to ride this wave, at the risk of lagging behind technologically.

Given the commercial potential of this type of action, mobile is indeed part of any digital communication strategy today. For a company, the mobile application represents an additional solution to boost its activity, develop its notoriety and acquire new customers.

Despite the difficult economic context, the growth in mobile advertising investments and m-commerce portends opportunities in the sector. Internally, companies are changing the way they work and communicate.