Tuesday, 17 July 2012

Top 5 Consumer Mobile Applications Categories for 2012

Mobile application market has seen tremendous growth in less than half a decade's time. There are more than six billion phone subscribers in the world, which indicates that around 80 percent of the world now owns a mobile phone. There's a huge demand of smartphones in market because of the multiple features they come with. And this growing demand is increasing the share of mobile apps market.

According to a study by mobile application store GetJar, the mobile apps market is expected to reach $17.5 million by 2012. More than 7 billion application downloads were performed in 2009, which is expected to cross 50 billion in 2012.

Gartner in the latest research has identified mobile application trends that will be a hit in 2012. So, here are the top 5 consumer mobile applications to watch-out for in 2012:

Location Based Services

Gartner expects that 1.4 billion people will be using location-based services by 2014. Location based services takes user's location, preference, gender, age, and many more things into account to deliver the content. Location based mobile applications prove time saving while searching for locations, navigating from one place to another, or even in storing route maps for next visit. Users can guide fellow travelers about shortest route, most time saving way of reaching out to a location, and best restaurants, coffee shops, hospitals & other places to visit in that area.

Social Networking

Social networking is booming and mobile applications have made it easier for people to stay connected. As per Gartner, it is the fastest growing consumer mobile application category. Social networking sites are transforming into portals, cloud storage, and transit hubs because of the increasing functionalities they are providing in terms of email, videos, games, e-commerce, and more.

M-commerce

Though mobile commerce is an extension of e-commerce but it has made a separate market for itself. M-commerce applications have just entered the market and users are currently not being offered too much functionality. Gartner expects that very soon retailers will shift their focus from e-commerce to providing more feature enabled mobile commerce applications. Users will get the ability to check into the store, add an item to shopping cart through bar code or picture they have clicked in the physical store. All these features are surely going to make shopping easier & more interesting through a mobile device.

Mobile Payment

Mobile phones with NFC payment feature have already entered the market and consumers are slowly getting adapted to the technology. Mobile payment applications have created a buzz in market. These apps make money transaction easier for buyers as they are relieved from the worries of carrying credit/debit cards wherever they go. But, payment solution providers have to create more awareness about the benefits of these applications in the consumer sector.

Instant Messaging

Mobile instant messaging applications are a hit amongst users of all age groups. Apps like Skype, Whatsapp, Nimbuzz make it easier and more pocket friendly for users to stay connected. BlackBerry, Apple, and Samsung already have IM apps for their device users & other manufacturers are also expected to come up with competitive applications very soon.

Other than these mobile application categories mobile email, mobile videos, gaming apps are also expected to become user favorite in 2012. These applications are not only expected to generate revenue of $15.9 billion this year, but will also give a push to hardware sales, advertising revenue, and technology innovation.

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