1st Q 2015 Mobile App Studies Reveal

We recently looked at an Adobe study of mobile marketing practices in the US and beyond, and App Annie’s Q1 2015 App Engagement Insights and how they can inform our marketing decisions. We’ve pulled out a few key items and six important graphs to highlight what’s happening in today’s mobile world.

Note that App Annie’s data focuses on 5 key countries—the US, UK, Germany, Japan and South Korea, while Adobe’s study faces towards Europe with the US and ROW being secondary.

1. Mobile App sales and advertising revenue both went up 70% from 2013 to 2014, while PC advertising stayed relatively flat. That makes mobile app a revenue stream that you should be able to add to your other revenue streams and see a real increase in your overall revenue.

2. In the US, the # 1 use of apps is social, the # 2 is communication. Now, some might say that’s the same category, so App Annie helpfully lumped the two together and gave us the top Apps in both categories by session. Facebook, followed by Chrome, followed by Snapchat in the US, with WhatsApp taking #1 place in the UK and Germany and local communication apps LINE and KakaoTalk taking the #1 slots in Japan and South Korea.

3. People engage with apps in different ways in these top key countries. In the US and the UK, we spend most of our time on Social Media, while in Germany they spend less time on Social Media and more on Communication. Japan and Korea, which both have a more sophisticated and faster access to the internet, spend a much higher percent of their time on games. I suspect that traveling on public transit over long distances may also give them ample time to play games on their mobile devices.

So how does this snapshot into Q1 2015 engagement sync with Adobe’s insights on marketing mobile apps? Take a look.

4. Companies agree that having a mobile strategy is more and more important. In fact, 54%  believe that mobile and desktop experiences are completely different.

5. Companies are building apps for phones first, then for tablets. And, they are building them more this year than last.

6. Companies are trying to figure out how to optimize for the new mobile world, and are spending a lot of time revamping websites. They are either making them responsive to different kinds of devices from desktop to smartphone, or they are dumping the desktop and making sure that their website is optimized for the web on mobile devices. Actually creating mobile apps is the 3rd thing they are focusing on. Almost ½ of those surveyed are creating apps

I hope you enjoyed this tour of the mobile world from the consumer and the marketers’ eyes.

As the app market continues to grow and competition continues to intensify, app marketing is necessary to ensure successful user engagement and monetization strategies. User relationships and trust will become essential.