Mobile app usage and growth trends to look out in 2023 and beyond
Finally, 2022 is about to end, and businesses are still recovering from the losses they faced during the pandemic crisis. All thanks to the latest innovations and digital-first technologies that enabled them to work remotely and continue their business practices by transitioning to digital mobile-first and cloud-based cross-platform solutions.
This expeditiously growing mobile app usage is becoming a motivating factor for tech leaders to bring more innovations in mobile app development. As these will also unlock many opportunities for them to stand out from their competitors.
As IT trends are rapidly evolving, So let’s have a look at some of the innovations that mobile apps will bring in the upcoming year 2023 and beyond.
Now let’s dive in!
Why is Mobile App Development So Popular?
The demand for mobile applications is increasing massively day by day and because of this, the mobile app development market has been experiencing massive advancements and elevations.
We have curated a list of some facts stating the innovation in the mobile app industry. Let’s have a look at them!
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Smartphone User Base
Since the smartphone revolution, its user base is expanding with a rapid growth of 0.3 to 0.6 billion every year. As you can see in the above graph the smartphone user count stated 3.6 billion in 2016, and recently in 2022, it reported 6.6 billion users that are using a smartphone. It is expected to reach around 7.7 billion smartphone users by 2027.
The smartphone user growth from 2016 to 2022, has grown with an annual growth rate of 10.4%.
Android vs iOS Mobile Users
- Global Market Share
In the global marketplace, Android surpasses iOS users and holds 72.2% of the market share globally.
However, in the US and UK, numbers are different. Now let’s have a look at them!
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US Market Share
If we see the comparison of Android vs iOS mobile users in the US marketplace, then iOS defeats Android with a 57% mobile user base.
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UK Market Share
Now In the case of the UK market share, both Android and iOS users are closely competing with each other. As you can see in the below stats, In the Q3 2020 survey Android users were leading with 53% user base but in Q3 2021 survey the iOS mobile user base was counted at 51.6%, and the Android user base was with 47.8% share.
2. Smartphone Usage
According to a survey, In 2022 the current number of smartphone users in the world is 7.26 billion which means 91.00% of the world’s total population owns a smartphone. One study also found that on average a normal person spent around 4 hours 23 minutes on a daily basis checking their smartphones.
There are many reasons behind these intensive smartphone usages including digitalization, easy availability of necessary services, and so on.
With this intense dedication of users towards their mobile phones, businesses can use this as an opportunity to increase their leads by providing cutting-edge mobile app solutions as mobile apps could generate $935 billion revenue by 2023.
Mobile App Download Statistics
According to research conducted by Statista, it is shown that approximately 247 billion apps are globally downloaded in 2020 and this figure is estimated to reach 299 billion by 2023.
Now let’s have a look at Google Play Store and App Store mobile app download statistics separately.
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Google Play Store
Google is the most trusted platform that is used by a large audience on a daily basis for downloading several mobile applications.
According to Statista during the last quarter of 2021, the number of mobile apps that are available for Android users experienced an increase of 4.67 million apps but in the second quarter of 2022, this number reached above 3.5 million apps, which is up by over 6 percent compared to the previous quarter.
The Google Play Store gets updated with around 3,739 apps every single day. These rising numbers have made the Play Store the biggest mobile app store in the world. At the latest, its app download rate was noted as 111.3 billion, which increased from 76 billion in 2018.
Google Play revenue by region wise is shown below: Source
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App Store
After Google Play Store, App Store is the second largest mobile app store in the world with 3.5 million apps during the second quarter of 2022.
This number can fluctuate as well because google and apple app stores are regularly removing low-quality apps from their app stores.
With its massive popularity and growing user base globally, the App store is expecting revenue growth of around $96 billion by 2023.
You can also have a look at its growth region-wise in the below graph:
Mobile App Retention Statistics
When mobile applications are getting developed the major focus is given to the user retention rate. But do you know the meaning of mobile app retention rate?
If not then keep reading!
Basically, the mobile app retention rate is calculated on the basis of which users continue to use the app after its installation. The more use of the application by the maximum number of users, the better the mobile app retention rate. It is calculated in the following 30 days after a user installs the app on their mobile phones.
The above numbers are shared by the mobile app developers community about the average mobile app retention rate measured within 30 days.
Below are the retention rate metrics as of august 2020, based on the type of mobile application and industry type.
Factors Affecting Mobile App Growth In 2023
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Apps For Foldable Smartphones
In the past few years, we have seen that mobile phones have changed fiercely, from flip phones to now touchscreens with no buttons. The last few years have seen the exposure of users towards foldable smartphones. Ideally, foldable devices can increase or compress their screen size to suit user preferences.
However, they might not become an instant hit but have an immense potential to reach a larger audience in no time.
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5G Technology
The rollout of 5G technology will offer a substantial improvement in mobile app development and creation. 5G connections’ speeds are 10 times faster and their latencies are 50% lower. With 5G, users can enjoy enhanced mobile app functionality with faster download and upload speeds.
Overall the potential of 5G technology can be immense and we will surely experience this very soon.
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AI Integrated Apps
AI has come into the mobile app industry a few years ago. From that point, it has come a long way when we think about virtual mobile assistants like Alexa and Siri.
Data analytics and machine learning are the two most common approaches that can be used to incorporate AI into apps and make them better to provide users with a superior experience. In the next few years, a rise will be experienced in the number of AI-powered apps in major sectors.
Trends Showing Mobile App Development Success
After learning about mobile applications’ business revenue generation, you might be thinking of developing your own mobile app for your brand.
But how to get started? Do you know anything about app development type? Trends that will revolutionize the app development industry? If not, then we are here to make your research work easy.
Below is a list of some of the most popular Google Play Store and Apple App Store categories:
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Mobile Entertainment & Gaming Apps
Entertainment and gaming apps have become an integral part of our lifestyle. In our free time, we all love to play games to freshen up our moods.
We can easily guess the popularity of mobile entertainment apps by looking at the above stats indicating the number of digital gamers increased by 89%.
At the end of 2021, the gaming industry generated total revenue of around $180.3 billion which was approximately a 1.4 % increase compared to the previous years.
Looking at the analysis mentioned above, you must have come across a thought of why are these apps so popular and downloaded the most?
So let’s know why:
- These apps have provided easy access to entertainment for people around the globe. They no longer have to buy expensive gadgets or laptops to play games as they can easily use their mobile phones to enjoy such things.
- Their popularity has increased because these apps provide entertainment on the go for those who don’t enjoy refreshments.
- Technological advancements like AR/VR have made these apps more mesmerizing and immersive.
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On-Demand Apps
With all the latest technology innovations, we don’t need to go outside to purchase food, groceries, or any other required item. All thanks to on-demand app services that are available to us a few taps away.
The user base of apps providing on-demand services has increased enormously in recent years, especially for online shopping apps, food delivery apps, and so on. Because of its increasing popularity, on-demand app revenue will hit $437 billion by 2022 and its average annual growth rate is predicted 6.2%.
Overall businesses have leveraged on-demand app opportunities to make their brand better in the upcoming years at the global level.
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Social Media Apps
“Did you know that nine out of ten people usually spend 4 to 5 hours daily scrolling social media? Above is the data of the most downloaded social media apps in 2021.”
The latest figure shows that the number of social media users will be expected to reach around 4.59 billion at the end of 2022 which is a 7.8% increase from a year ago.
These numbers have experienced a whopping 68.1 percent jump in just five years.
Moving forward the number of social media users will continue to increase and seeing such success rates indicates a clear opportunity for social media marketing and e-commerce businesses worldwide.
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Video Streaming Apps
The video streaming app revenue reached $72.2 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach around $115 billion by 2026.
Now we will look at the growth stats of some of the top-rated and most popular video streaming platforms that are available in the market.
- Youtube generated $28.8 billion revenue in 2021 with its premium subscription reaching 50 million subscribers. There are over 2.5 billion people that are accessing youtube once a month.
- In 2021 Netflix generated $24.9 billion revenue with a net profit of $5.1 billion.
In 2022 it has 222 million subscribers worldwide and will increase with a growth rate of 82% by 2023.
- Disney plus Hotstar is a new streaming service that is launched by the American Entertainment titan in 2019. According to Q2 2022, it has 137.7 billion subscribers and generated $1796 million globally which is a 32% increase from the last year 2021.
- Amazon Prime Video has gained immense popularity and exposure since the time it was released. It is expected to hit a $1 trillion net worth in the next few years.
By looking at the below graph you can see that It has also been the strongest competitor to Netflix as well!
Conclusion
The increasing popularity of mobile applications will indeed experience skyrocket success in the following years. The emerging mobile app development technologies combined with new hardware capabilities will continue to drive the evolution of mobile app development services.
So that was all it was for mobile growth statistics for 2023 and beyond.
Do you want to know more about the mobile app development process? Get in touch with us today to get an expert consultation for your mobile app development query.
Article Source:- https://medium.com/@DianApps/mobile-app-usage-and-growth-trends-to-look-out-in-2023-and-beyond-7952537070f