Abstract
In this research, we examine the popularity of mobile applications across different categories by using the measures of monthly active users (MAUs) of each app. It is the authors’ intention to inspect the key characteristics of mobile apps and the relationship those characteristics have with market share and growth rate in global markets. The ease of use of mobile apps leads to a subsequent impact on the global users’ mobile behavior in daily life. Mobile apps have flooded the market, however, the acceptance and use of individual apps relies on a combination of the preference of users and the operational strategies employed by app developers. Based on secondary data collected from multiple sources including both publications and online data, the global market growth of mobile apps including China (the world’s largest market of mobile apps) has shown a correlation between apps’ market share and the users’ mobile behavior based on messaging, networking, shopping, video watching, and gaming. This research categorizes users’ mobile behavior in terms of age groups and time spent on certain mobile apps. The objective of this investigation is better understanding of the dominance of leading mobile apps and the future trend of mobile apps designed for the global market.
Highlights
The number of smartphone users worldwide has reached 2.5 billion, which is equivalent to 33% of the world population
We examine the popularity of mobile applications across different categories by using the measures of monthly active users (MAUs) of each app
This study aims to explore the status of mobile apps in the global market and to determine the factors influencing the dominance of the leading mobile apps
Summary
The number of smartphone users worldwide has reached 2.5 billion, which is equivalent to 33% of the world population. The annual 10% growth rate of smartphone users since 2014 has triggered the fast growth of mobile applications (apps). By their ease of use, mobile apps have become popular everywhere in the world. There were almost 200 billion mobile apps downloads in 2017, up 32% from a year earlier. Purcell [9] defined mobile apps as end-user software applications designed for a cell phone operating system to perform particular tasks. Smartphone performance and utility build on the use of mobile apps. Mobile apps were downloaded more than 90 billion times from inception through 2017; there were 200 million downloads in 2017 alone [10] [11].
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