It is fair to say that “apps”, whether for PC, tablet, or phone, are very much a part of our daily lives. We will confine our brief look into the world of apps to mobile-only.
There are all types of apps, some even being brought to us by businesses who don’t even need them! It’s all about convenience for current users and availability for potential users, because without them, other brands simply jump in to replace them.
To really take your breath away, as of early 2022 (the latest data available), there were:
- 3.6 million apps and 984,000 games in the Apple store, 92.3% of them ‘free’.
Games make up 21.8% of the Apple app store with business and education being the second and third most popular categories - 2.39 million apps and 442,000 games in the Google Play app store, 96.2% of them ‘free’.
Games make up 15.6% of the Google Play Store with education and business apps being the second and third most popular categories.
‘Free’ apps nearly all, without exception, come with often intrusive and highly repetitive advertising that pops up offering other ‘free’ app suggestions that in turn contain their own intrusive and repetitive advertising; being able to pay to remove the advertising, combined with ‘in-app’ advertising, is where they generate their income from.
Despite the 24 categories of app in the Apple Store and 32 categories in Google Play, if being brutally honest, there really are only six main categories. The top apps in each category seem to constantly change position, so we have listed actual named top apps at the bottom. Gaming is a colossal market globally with both competitive and entertaining gaming making for example, casino games at Dunder fall under the entertainment category where gamers can indulge in their hobby at their leisure. More competitive games in the esports scene such as Fortnite, Valorant and Counterstrike: Global Offensive are just some hugely popular titles that occupy the other sectors.
- Lifestyle (supports your own defined lifestyle activities)
- News and information (bringing it to you in your most favoured easy and immersible manner)
- Productivity (to help you accomplish important things, often making the often-dull activities much more enjoyable)
- Social media (how we interact with friends and family)
- Utility (most often used without a second thought, the majority of which tend to be already installed on mobile devices).
Social media apps continue to dominate the download charts, and as such, are the most favoured across the globe. They are the ones that users keep the longest, although many do access their leisure gaming apps quite frequently. It is of course the nature of social media apps and what they do, enabling people to effortlessly keep in touch with one another, that keeps them firmly at the top of the app charts. The most recent data available, that being for 2021, lists the following as the top 10 ‘new’ app downloads for that year. It should be noted that some users find that the pausing of games for advertising leads them to delete apps from their devices, whereas social media apps tend to seamlessly include their advertising within their app during use, rendering the advertising far less intrusive.
- TikTok: 656 million
- Instagram: 545 million
- Facebook: 416 million
- WhatsApp: 395 million
- Telegram: 329 million
- Snapchat: 327 million
- Zoom: 300 million
- Messenger: 268 million
- CapCut: 255 million (video editing)
- Spotify: 203 million (music streaming)
Source: TechPresident.com
