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26Oct, 2022

The Global State of Mobile App
Development in 2022- Trends,
Market, Players & Evolution

“Insights of every parameter that governs the latest mobile app

development ecosystem in this mobile-first era” – A Detailed Research

Report of 2022 with actual data assembled from developers’ interviews.

 –  Crafted & owned by Exemplarymarketing

The History of Mobile Apps from 1994 to Now: A Timeline

1. The First Ever Mobile App

The first ever name in the mobile application world came with the first ever smartphone back in 1994. IBM launched the first ever smartphone, namely “Simon”, with 10 basic apps like mail, calculator, notepad, and address book. Back in the day, these were called ‘features’, not apps.

2. First mobile app with QWERTY keyboard

Blackberry released their first smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard and a mobile email app in 2002.

3. Preloaded mobile apps

In 2007, Apple launched its first iPhone with preloaded mobile apps like Weather, Maps, Text, and Task Scheduler.

4. Dawn of the third party apps

 Third-party app development began in 2008, when Apple SDK was released, allowing third-party app developers to create mobile apps for iPhones.The concept of an app store came into existence. The first app store had 500 apps.

5. Google Play took birth

In 2012, Google stepped into the App store sphere with Google Play, integrating Google products like the Android market, music, books, and other Google standalone services.

6. Games as Apps

Games like Angry Birds, Temple Run, and Candy Crush started making millions and generated 63% of overall global mobile app revenue.

7. Apps on bigger screens

After huge success in the mobile world, apps have walked from the mobile screen to bigger screens and different smart devices.

8. Apps are all around us

Apps came out of screens and started walking into homes and wearables.

9. Future of Mobile apps

Four major technologies that will direct the future of mobile app development are 3D, AI, AR, and VR.

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Latest Trends in Mobile App Development

There are clear trends in mobile app development that are controlling the direction of the existing landscape. The reasons behind these trends are typically influenced by new technologies, diversified user demands, and the app market economy. 

 

Mobile app developers are pretty clear about these ever changing trends, and they are continuously upgrading their skills to delve into next generation app development requirements. Due to these trends, new kinds of mobile apps are surfacing every day in the app stores.

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1. Super Apps - #Scope - multiple digital experiences for users

One app solving multiple users’ problems is the buzz these days. These super apps let users do multiple things like ecommerce shopping, booking hotels, hailing cabs, ordering food, buy life insurance, e-wallet and more. 

Example – Popular super apps are AliPay, Revoult, Google Pay, Phone Pay, and WeChat.

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2. P2P mobile apps

Peer to peer mobile apps lets you send money instantly to your family, friends, customers, and what not. 

The types of P2P apps are:

  • Built-into mobile OS – Android Pay, Apple Pay
  • Standalone  – Paypal, Paytm, Phonepe
  • Band dedicated – dedicated mobile apps directly from banks
  • Social media apps – Whatsapp, WeChat
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3. AR and VR technology

AR and VR technology will continue to rise in the mobile app development arena in the coming future.

Scope:

  • New innovations
  • There is something for every business vertical.
  • New age of customer experience
  • Smarter ways to measure user analytics
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4. Voice Recognition

in the last decade, voice technology has been continuously sipping into the mainframe of mobile app development, and in the coming future it will continue to do so as voice commerce occupies the major chunk of mobile commerce.

Scope:

  1. Retail and m-Commerce
  2. Smart home & appliances
  3. Smart Wearables
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5. Mobile learning

COVID period is the biggest influencer behind the rise of mobile learning platforms. Most schools and colleges continue their learning programs through mobile platforms.  The rising number of mobile EdTech platforms is the result of this rising trend.

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6. 5G is coming

It will be 100 times faster than the existing 4G tech. Similarly, a new course of low latency mobile app development techniques is expected to deliver that speed for supporting upcoming AR and VR apps.

Scopes:

  1. High resolution media streaming
  2. Complex Mobile OTT platforms
  3. Mobile Learning
  4. AR and VR apps
  5. IOT-centric functionalities like smart car
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7. Leading IDEs or integrated development environments

IDEs are cardinal for the mobile app developers as these platforms offer them the absolute freedom and tools to develop native apps that are dedicated to mobile OS.

Leading IDEs are:

  • Android Apps – Android Studio as an IDE and the main languages for developing Android apps are Java and Kotlin.
  • iOS Apps – Developers use XCode, Swift, and Objective – C as development languages.
  • Hybrid Apps – These apps function on mobile platforms as well as on the Web. The main developing languages are HTML5, React Native, Flutter, Cordova, and Ionic.

Mobile App development Market Parameters & Size

We tried to find out the key parameters linked to the global mobile app development market and their sizes. Here is the list of the cardinal parameters that define the entire market.

1. Mobile operating system market Share

Mobile OS is one of the cardinal elements that controls the global mobile app development market. Statistically, Android is still the leading platform with 72% market penetration, followed by iOS with 27%.

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2. Super Apps market Size

67% of the US population wish to add multiple funciotalities within one super app.

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3. P2P Apps Market

According to many market research reports, the size of the P2P money transfer market will grow to $612 billion within 2023.

 

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4. AR & VR mobile app market size

This market is going to reach around $300 billion by 2024

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5. Voice Recognition Market

According to predictions, the size of the worldwide voice recognition industry would increase from $10.7 billion in 2020 to $30 billion in 2026.

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6. Mobile Learning

The revenue from the global mobile learning or eLearning industry was around $18.5 billion in 2019, and it is anticipated to rise to over $58 billion by 2025.

Parameters – 

  1. 55% improvement in business growth through hmLearning
  2. mLearning improves productivity by 43%.
  3. 30% smartphone users use their phones for on-the-go learning. 

7. 5G is here

According to projections, there will be almost three billion 5G subscriptions worldwide by 2025. It is anticipated that developed countries in Asia and North America will adopt 5G technology first.

   Parameters – 

  1. The economic impact of 5G is expected to reach 484 billion U.S. dollars in the United States.
  2. Prior to Taiwan and Australia, South Korea demonstrated the fastest average 5G download speed in the Asia-Pacific area.
  3. The average 5G download speed in Finland was faster than that of Greece, Switzerland, and Austria, which came in second and third, respectively.
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8. mCommerce

The market for mobile payments was estimated at $1.48 trillion globally in 2019; by 2027, it is expected to grow to $12.06 trillion.

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Major Players in Mobile App Development

Apart from the lone or small group of mobile app developers, there are major companies that are leading this industry. According to their sizes and influences, we made a list of those companies/ agencies:

  • Indium
  • AlgoWorks
  • Hyperlink Infosystem
  • Adventura
  • ScienceSoft
  • DCI(Dot Com Infoway)
  • Appinventive
  • Fueled
  • 360°Technosoft

Industry-Specific Segregation of Mobile Apps

We analyzed accumulated data and grouped mobile apps according to their business verticals to understand the diversified challenges solved by these apps that originated from different business sectors. We found out that there are six basic types of mobile apps:

  • Educational apps.
  • Lifestyle apps.
  • Social media apps.
  • Productivity apps.
  • Entertainment apps.
  • Gaming apps.

 

Furthermore, we also measured the mobile app penetration status in different usage segments. We found out that the leading mobile app penetration segments are utility tools, communication, business, travel, and social, followed by other segments like music, photography, lifestyle, and games. 

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About Exemplarymarketing’s Mobile App Development analysis report

Exemplarymarketing delved into the segment of the mobile app development industry and tried to churn out more information regarding this ecosystem.

 

We communicated with over 1500 mobile app developers across the globe and asked about their development experiences and what the prime movers in this industry are. As per their knowledge and experience, we understood that the mobile app development industry is not going anywhere soon and that it will keep evolving with new and upcoming technologies. 

 

All respondents shared their information through regular digital communication channels like email, e-meetings, 1:1 interview sessions, and social channels.  

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