It’s common knowledge now that mobile is where it’s app (last time, promise!), but it’s evolution over the next few years is set to cement it further still.

Predictions are rife about how smartphone and tablet sales will increase, and sales of PC’s and laptops decrease, whilst the trust in mobile devices will steadily grow too, meaning more people will shop or pay for things on the go. With the mobile market set to grow so rapidly, it’s inevitable that the very things that make mobile devices so appealing, the apps will grow pretty quickly too.

A report from Juniper Research suggests that in 2017 160 billion apps will be downloaded, that’s twice the amount predicted to be downloaded this year, so there’s some seriously rapid growth afoot. What’s interesting from this report though is the types of apps that are predicted to be popular…

Free apps are expected to make up 95% of that figure. Paid-for apps are already struggling in a world where consumers are conscious that they may not get what they pay for, but in the next few years apps which incur no up-front cost will grow in popularity. It’s likely to mean an increase in mobile advertising and ‘freemium’ content, or in-app purchasing, as mobile app developers try to find ways to make sufficient money with free apps.

Games make up a whopping 40% of the predicted app market in 2017. However, the report warns of an influx of low quality apps, which receive very poor user engagement. Successes such as Angry Birds and Candy Crush have meant a significant amount of people jumping on the bandwagon, seeing their fortunes being made in mobile app gaming. The problem is that a game needs a multitude of factors and a strong marketing strategy in order to succeed. Many find they have reasonable to high download figures, but after just two or three plays users never actually return.

One type of app which doesn’t encounter engagement issues is social communication apps. They will generally tend to have lower overall download figures, but users will access them multiple times in a day, very rarely falling out of love with the app or deleting it. It’s predicted that there popularity will continue.

The information throws up some interesting ideas for marketers as to whether the ability to utilise the popularity of free-to-download games or even social communications apps could be a successful route for their brand in the mobile app world.

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