What percentage of apps are successful?

Mobile application design is a big investment. Acquiring users is not cheap. Entering the mobile phone market is a repeatable process that requires comprehensive research, extensive planning, and unparalleled commitment. Success in the mobile application design market today is not an easy task. But the truth is that having a mobile app is inevitable. Before you start designing a mobile app, it is important to completely get to know the mobile ecosystem. After that, you can make an informed decision about your mobile strategy appropriately and according to your needs.

Mobile usage statistics

If you doubt the importance of a mobile presence, consider how society prioritizes mobile activities.

1.            By 2020, there will be almost 6 billion mobile phone users.

2.            In 2018, there were 194 billion app downloads.

3.            App Store users spent 75% more in the past two years, reaching $101 billion worldwide.

4.            The in-app membership model experienced a 120% increase, separate from game apps.

5.            In 2018, users spent an average of three hours on their smartphones.

6.            Mobile phone users in the United States have over 100 apps installed on their smartphones.

7.            On average, mobile phone users check their smartphones 47 times daily.

8.            About 80% of users check their phone at least one hour before going to sleep, and 35% check their phone 5 minutes before going to sleep.

9.            16-24-year-olds spend 20% more time in their apps.

10.          Mobile apps accounted for 57% of all digital media in 2018.

The evidence is clear; people are addicted to their smartphones. If most of your audience is mobile-first or mobile-only, your business needs to communicate with them based on their preferences.

Mobile performance

Users have extremely high standards for performance in mobile usage. You need to check your digital content on different screen sizes and devices. Every mobile application should be thoroughly tested. Performance factors such as load times, app crashes, and complex registration forms can create a poor user experience and ruin your chances of success in the market.

11.          71% of app deletions are due to app crashes.

12.          67% of bugs are reported from iOS devices.

13.          44% of defects in the program are found based on the user.

14.          47% of applications need more time for testing.

15.          15% of users are inconsistent.

16.          52% of users are disappointed with the overall performance of the application.

17.          17% of users leave the application immediately if they do not find it valuable.

18.          70% of users abandon an application because it takes too long to download.

19.          43% of users will cancel your application if it takes more than three seconds to start downloading it.

20.          65% of users say that a poor user experience negatively affects their brand opinion.

If your app is not well tested, it is not ready to market. A documented testing process is an important element of any mobile strategy.

Mobile Marketing

Realizing progress in the mobile app market is difficult even for established institutions. Drafting a mobile marketing plan is the cornerstone of a successful product launch.

21.          Only 54% of marketers say they currently use the mobile application platform to sell and attract customers.

22.          The cost of attracting a user has decreased from 29.9% to $2.89 in a few years.

23.          The cost of acquiring a user who completed a registration form was $4.58 in 2018, a decrease of 44.2%.

24.          Using a multi-channel engagement strategy is a powerful retention method. The retention rate of users is 62% higher than applications that communicate with only one channel.

25.          The most popular method of optimizing the App Store (ASO) is updating the description, which accounts for 46% of the statistics.

26.          App icon updates were the second most popular ASO method at around 30%, 24% more than in previous years.

27.          Last year, 65% of digital advertising spending in the United States was on mobile.

28.          The total download volume of top paid applications has increased by 10%.

29.          App Store uses more than 25% of advertising platforms annually.

30.          The year, Google Play Store used about 20% of advertising platforms.

Download statistics report of mobile applications

Applications do not succeed without downloads. It seems like a very simple statement, but most application owners ignore this issue. You can have the best app on the planet, but if no one downloads it, you won't make any progress. So before you can get people to download your app, you need to spend time doing proper research. When creating a mobile app, one of the first things to consider is your monetization strategy. That's why your goal in building an app in the first place is to make money. Paying to download apps might be something that crosses your mind. But if your app is paid, will people download your app? The vast majority of apps that people are downloading are free.

Just look at your mobile phone. Do you have an app that you paid to install? If you have, you are in the minority. However, people who download paid apps are more engaged with that app. They don't want to spend money on something and never use it. But you don't need to get a download fee to make money with your app. For each of you who owns a business and has a foot in the door to improve and facilitate your customers' experience, you should offer this app for free. Even launching an app as a brand new business, you can still make money by giving away your app for free. There are many other monetization strategies, such as offering in-app purchases.

Download statistics of Google Play vs. App Store

IOS devices download apps from the Apple App Store, while Android users download from the Google Play Store. See how these two operating systems compete in terms of app downloads worldwide. Worldwide, there are more downloads from the Google Play Store. But as you can see, both stores saw an increase in the percentage of downloads from 2017 to 2018. Google Play Store downloads grew by 14%, while the Apple Store grew by just 3%. In short, Google Play Store has more downloads and is growing faster. It is expected that these trends will continue in 2020.

The most popular app store categories

For your program to be successful, you need to understand what consumers want. This is especially important for developing a new application. Your app may be revolutionary in terms of software or app concept, but if there is no market for it, you will struggle to get downloads.

Apple App Store availability

As I said, the mobile app industry is very competitive. But how many programs are going to compete with it? Look at some of the programs in the Apple App Store. The number of programs available is increasing every year. This makes sense based on all the statistics we have analyzed so far. More people have mobile devices than ever, and app downloads are at an all-time high. So it's only natural that more apps will be released to the market.

Availability of Google Play Store

We see a decline in app availability after mid-2017. Why does this happen? Google Store is very competitive. Therefore, some programs could not continue. However, I do not expect this trend to continue in a downward direction. It should remain level and eventually rise again in the coming years.

As we have already seen, even though the number of apps available for download has decreased slightly, Google Play Store downloads are still increasing. The number of apps available in the Apple Store is increasing yearly, but the download growth rate is less than that of the Google Play Store. Based on this information, it is easy to conclude that the number of apps in each store is unrelated to the general increase in app downloads.

The most popular app category in the Google Play Store

You can measure the success of a group of apps based on penetration. According to Statista, these programs are the most popular among Android users.

•             Tool – 99%

•             Communication – 99%

•             Video player and editing – 96%

•             Travel and Local – 95%

•             Social media – 95%

•             Productivity – 92%

•             Music – 88%

•             Entertainment – 84%

•             News – 81%

•             Photography – 75%

•             Books – 70%

•             Lifestyle – 65%

•             Personalization – 60%

•             Trade – 39%

•             Shopping – 35%

•             Weather – 32%

•             Exercise – 30%

•             Education – 28%

•             Finance – 25%

•             Health – 23%