We read in the NY Times tech pages that the one millionth mobile app went live on Wednesday last week. The journalist goes on to say that apps (including iOS, Android and Blackberry) have passed other media such as books and movies by overall output. A direct quote:
“Every week about 100 movies get released worldwide, along with about 250 books, said Anindya Datta, the founder and chairman of Mobilewalla, That compares to the release of around 15,000 apps per week.”
My immediate response was, that’s terrific news for a digital agency like our’s that produces smartphone apps for clients as one of the touchpoints we deliver. But then my partner Matt says, that also means it will be a lot harder to stand out in all the noise. This could be just seen as consistent with the way the web grew up, a proliferation of web pages that became unnavigable until Mr. Google stepped up and made it searchable. Solutions for finding the right app may be the next innovation around smartphone apps. Certainly keeping up with the app stores isn’t a good enough way to keep track of the 15K apps coming out each week.
And then there’s the question of the real value of mobile apps versus mobile browser. In recent research by Adobe and Forrester, apps appear over rated for certain activities with 66% people preferring to shop via mobile browser and an even bigger percentage of 79% preferring mobile web for product research. But when it came to social media, music and especially games, apps are the chosen ones.
(source: Adobe)
So making your mind about launching an app isn’t as simple as “everyone else is doing, we should do it too.” And the 1M apps could just be over hyped technology if the utility of these apps isn’t fully realized in all that noise. Can you say Pet.com and Webvan, folks?
I think the most important consideration should be what is the purpose of the app and who it’s intended to be used by. For example, my teenage son might be the perfect target for a camera app that turns your face into a sushi roll but my wife the homemaker just wants to find out what’s going on at our kid’s school website. Obviously the school could use a mobile web site, not an app. But what about a financial institution that wants to reach 20 somethings with mobile deals – app or browser? Now that’s a much harder question. A lot of considerations come into play about branding, needed tech features like GPS, and running cost of an app.
Of course there are bigger questions like global warming or what I’ll have for lunch, but 1M apps only makes us wonder whether to be gungho about it or pause for breathe.
– Lance Shields
