5 New Statistics That Will Define Mobile App Strategy in 2016

Part of our job at The Farm is to make sure we’re always learning as much as we can about the app industry so we can better serve our clients. And right now, there’s a ton of great news stories (nothing about the elections, don’t worry) that have made us say “uh, that’s pretty important.” Here are 5 statistics to come out recently that we think speak volumes to where the industry will go in 2016.

1. 4 out of 5 US Companies See Positive Mobile App ROI

A great report was just put out by Red Hat Mobile with a ton of information ranging from the maturation of mobile app strategy in businesses to the prevalence of KPI usage which we’re always a fan of. But the stat that most caught our eye was this one:

If there’s any more proof you app advocates (appvocates?) need to show your boss as to why mobile apps are important for your company, this is it. Nearly 80% in this survey of IT decision makers have said that they’ve seen a positive return on investment from their app. With good press like this, we are bound to see even more companies take the mobile plunge this year.

2. Global Economy Issues Hike Up App Price

Not in the US! Don’t worry, but if you’re in Canada, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore or South Africa, you’ll probably be seeing an increase in app prices in the Apple App Store. This is due to fluctuations in exchange rates in currencies.
Granted: a) the price changes are small. In Canada, the lowest pricing tier will start at $1.39 CAD, from $1.19 CAD; and b) Apple has done this before. Still, it seems the prices are usually going up rather than down, and since mobile apps make doing business overseas easier and easier for US companies, this is a trend to keep an eye on. After all, we know many people already hate paying for apps. What will happen when apps regularly start breaking the $0.99 barrier in the US?

3. Most Health and Financial & Payment Apps are Insecure

How insecure? 90% of tested apps in one survey were exposed to at least two of the OWASP Mobile Top 10 vulnerabilities.

Mobile security is set to be a big topic this year, and the app industry as a whole hasn’t been doing a good job. As more people depend on mobile apps for extremely important things, namely finance and healthcare, it’s going to take a concerted effort to plug many of the biggest vulnerabilities. If you really don’t want to sleep at night, you can read more scary stats in arxan.com’s report. Note to self: invest in mobile security stocks.

4. Chat Apps Kept Users Engaged for 30+ Minutes Per Session.

That right there is why everyone is trying to leverage messaging apps. Most companies can only dream of seeing engagement times like that. Once you add chat into the mix, you’ve suddenly got a very sticky app. And here’s the good news for leveraging these chat apps to advertise your own company:

Users are not opposed to engaging with brands on chat apps. 79% of messaging app users claim that they are likely to engage with brands during their chat app experience, according to a 2015 MEC survey cited by Digiday. If users are open to engaging with brands that are trying to promote their products, they are likely to want to interact with news and media companies as well.

Chat apps just might become 2016’s battleground for mobile advertising. So basically, expect to have a nice text conversation with IKEA in the near future.

5. Tablets Are Tanking

Remember when we wrote about how only businesses are really using tablets? Well, now there’s more evidence that people are abandoning tablets for daily use, even in tasks that tablets used to excel at. For example, smartphones surpassed tablets as the preferred device for holiday shopping in 2015. In 2014, the opposite was the case.
But what about what everyone said tablets were for? Video! Well, video viewing on tablets declined by 7% while it rose by 33% on phones. Why get up off the couch for your iPad when your iPhone is right there, ready to play that cat video?
This is a trend that we’ve been aware of, and it’s beginning to become clear that tablets are really only long for the business world. So because tablet usage is trending down, the mobile app industry will be responding accordingly as this year goes on.
What are the mobile trends you see shaping 2016? Sound off in our comments section!