No, Sorry, There’s Not an App for that Yet

Accessing your favorite sites from your smart phone or other web-enabled mobile device is more popular than ever. Statistics suggest smart phones will be nearly 1/3 of the entire mobile market before the middle of the decade, and as a result, developers are rushing to ensure their applications are not only popular, but create a level of lasting usefulness as well. As a result, a number of trends in the mobile application market have begun to appear.

The Financials

Few individuals take the time to physically write a check these days. Paying online almost always involves simply accessing your credit or debit card or bank account from a service like PayPal that’s designed for web usage. This trend hasn’t escaped mobile web designers either. Because it’s difficult to go through screen after screen of the typical online purchase process from your smart phone, many designers are creating new payment interfaces from everything to downloading new applications and music to your mobile device to making small charitable contributions with a few clicks. Western Union recently announced a pilot project involving mobile bill pay, and the cell phone companies themselves almost all have a feature where customers can pay the mobile bill directly from the phone. As traditional banks begin reinventing the security protocol that will be necessarily involved with the process, it’s likely they’ll play a role as well.

Application Buying Diversity

Apple has certainly cornered the initial market share on application development and sales, and their ad campaigns don’t hesitate to let you know, but there are some real drawbacks. Not only is it more difficult for developers to get an app to iTunes these days for purchase, but with the market increasing for other brands, the idea that Apple will remain king of the market isn’t likely to last forever.

What’s more, though, is the real lack of organization iTunes presents. Most iPhone users know they can download an app that will allow them to make various fart noises or make a virtual stapler staple every time you touch it, but with so many applications on the market today, it’s difficult for business professionals to sort through the ones that may actually help them more effectively work with clients or accomplish tasks. As a result, niche app markets, and the associated stores, are increasingly appearing to help with promotion. Because today’s most popular app stores don’t offer professionals a way to sort out virtual staplers from those that may offer you the best project management help, compiling them in this format is essential to individuals who simply don’t care if one of their apps allows them to get exclusive messages from Britney Spears.

The World of Advertising

Along with the newfound diversity in purchasing apps from other stores and for other devices besides the iPhone comes application advertising that just wasn’t a possibility a few years ago. These days, however, there are sites and networks that are entirely dedicated to covering the thousands of applications that are released each week, and that’s going to be essential as the market gets bigger and bigger. One study suggested that over the next five years, ad revenue for apps will increase to nearly $1.5 billion, and as a result, the very rudimentary promotional strategies many app developers are using to encourage mobile users to download their app over another one aren’t going to stand the test of time. Applications for every smart phone on the market are being released at a fast pace, and when you add that to the development of apps over the past several years, any smart phone user has to have the advertising just to make sense of the mountain of virtual products that are now available.

The Ever Present Social Media

Sure, social media marketing was the zeitgeist of the last decade, but it’s not going anywhere in the near future unless it’s headed to your smart phone. People already tweet or update a Facebook page from their mobile devices, so it’s little surprise that mobile development as a whole is headed in this direction as well. When you add the GPS capabilities to today’s most popular social sites, you have an entirely new animal that may redefine social media as it struggles to find its place in this emerging market.

As more businesses and dedicated app developers join the scene, these trends are likely to give way to newer ideas, as well, making this entire post fodder for at least the occasional update.