Our apps, they need a changing - Mobile Conference Brussels

transcript

Our apps, they need a-changing!

Chris Heilmann, Mobile Convention, Brussels, 27/11/2014

@codepo8

Chris Heilmann

Mobile trends

iOS controls most of the high-end device market !Android almost every other area !Windows Phone gains developer interest, but not users

Vision Mobile, Developer Economics Q3 2014: State of the Developer Nation

IDC: Smartphone OS Market Share, Q2 2014

255 million units shipped Nearly 85% of the market share

IDC: Smartphone OS Market Share, Q2 2014

Android fragmentation

Android Fragmentation Visualized (August 2014)

18,796 Distinct Android devices

(11,868 last year)

43% Samsung

20.9% KitKat

Developer climate

Programming languages, Mobile app developers

Other27

Objective-C24

C/C++26

Java (Android)38

HTML542

47% of iOS developers, 42% of Android developers !use something other than the native language

Platform priority

Android iOS Windows Phone BlackBerry 10 Others

July 2013 July 2014

No of platform targets

App revenue

Haves12%

Strugglers19%

Poverty stricken22%

Have nothings47%

< $100

$100 … $1000

$1000 … $10,000

$10,000 …

Majority of app businesses not sustainable with current revenue 50% of iOS developers, 64% of Android developers below the ‘app poverty line” of $500 per app per month

Games dominate app store revenues, yet most games developers struggle !33% of developers make games 57% of those games make less than $500 per month

Targets consumers Targets professionals Targets enterprise

Target users

Developers who target enterprises: !Twice as likely to be earning over $5k per app per month Almost 3 times as likely to earn more than $25k per app per month.

Third party tools are a critical part of successful app businesses !The more tools a developer uses, the more money they make

Apps and the things they do for us.

Guardian - Women taking the lead when it comes to mobile

App types & usage

Health Entertainment Lifestyle Social networking Games

Men Women

Business Insider/Flurry

http://qz.com/253618/most-smartphone-users-download-zero-apps-per-month/

https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2014/8/comScore-s-US-Mobile-App-Report-Available-for-Download

An ebbing rush of apps…

IT ALL JUST WORKS!

https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press-Releases/2014/8/comScore-s-US-Mobile-App-Report-Available-for-Download

Quartz - These are the 25 most popular mobile apps in America

http://qz.com/253527/these-are-the-25-most-popular-mobile-apps-in-america/

Facebook is by far the top app, with 115.4 million unique visitors in June. With 160 million total US app users, that’s 72% penetration.

Google is the top mobile app publisher. Its apps represent nos. 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 16.

http://qz.com/253527/these-are-the-25-most-popular-mobile-apps-in-america/

There are no games in the top 25. This is not a mistake: … (games are) closer to 10 million unique visitors—probably because games tend to spike in popularity and then decline.

In other words, people are already busy (or addicted)…

Like, follow, upvote,!comment, connect,!endorse, watch !movie, fill survey,!follow, ban, invite,!try out, click, !download, upload,!verify…!

…and people are satisfied.

Platform offerings

Seamless data retention and syncing

Single location service aggregation

Automatic updates and notifications

Natural service integration

This comes at a cost…

http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1937

Today's new iPad Air 2 experience consists of 23 or more steps and no less than three iCloud services (iCloud, iCloud Drive, & iCloud Keychain).

http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1937

In contrast, today's new Android Nexus experience consists of only 8 steps but with a mandatory 234MB update (some things don't change).

What’s next?

Wearables…

Android Wear

Apple wearables

Microsoft wearables

Samsung Galaxy Gear S

IOT, Smart*

There is no screen, only data and messages going back and forth…

Emerging markets

World Wide Web(ish)…

IDC: Worldwide Smartphone Forecast by Region

http://www.android.com/one/

Google Plans to Spend ~$1 Billion on Android One in India

Future strategies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrcAPan028Y

Let’s rethink our mobile strategy and apply web goodness…

The future won’t have flying cars and limitless connectivity.

Online/offline is _so_ not a binary state…

Build apps that deliver!

Do work offline Do interact with the platform (payment, login) Don’t ask for more than you need. Do use the technology that delivers the best result (native controls, web views for simple data maintenance)

Aim for atomic updates Build a service, not an app for a certain platform or form factor. Things move fast.

Let’s make things beautiful!

If you enable people world-wide to get a good experience and solve a problem they have, I like it. The technology you use is not the important part. How much you lock them in is. Don’t lock people in.

Christian Heilmann

Chris Heilmannchristianheilmann.com@codepo8chris.heilmann@gmail.com

Thank you!