The evolution of mobile applications

At the beginning there wasSimon.Released in 1992,The first smartphone, delivered with 10 basic applications and a battery life of one hour, only sold 50,000 units. “Dispatchit” was the only application developed by a third party for Simon, sold at $3,300. And you had to host the host on your own server to use it. It is therefore difficult to imagine that the smartphone will become the universal tool for professionals and individuals,so customizable that the term “tool” no longer reflects reality.

Now applications have become the tools, and smartphones their platforms. It is Apple which, with its App Store launched in 2012, allows users to define for themselves the relationship they have with their smartphone. No more pre-installed sets of features, everyone can draw from an increasingly extensive catalog, and thus assign different uses to their device.

Of course, what constitutes a good app is not immediately identified. Before the market fully grasped the value of mobile applications, two pitfalls developed in parallel : The Gadgetization on the user side and the Race to the showcase app on the business side. For brands it was only an additional communication space, sometimes struggling to even replace the “responsive” mobile site. However, in recent years, apps have become more mature.

The consumer market: trendsetter

When the stores opened, all companies wanted their “app” because they were afraid of missing the mobile check mark. Mobile apps were considered to be the unmissable new innovation and it was necessary to quickly offer something to its customers, often by simply replicating the existing website. This is how the number of mobile applications increased from 500 in 2008 to 200,000 in mid-2010 (App store).

As of 2015, we notice a slowdown in the mobile app market, and although their number is constantly increasing, many users are uninstalling them to save space, avoid duplicates or simply because responsive websites have become good enough. That's what was pointing This lemon squeezer item in 2016. Likewise, major applications have lost notoriety as SensorTower showed in its download study: in 2016 the 15 most popular applications lost 20% of downloads in 1 year.

However, mobile applications are far from dead and a large part of their survival is due to the long tail. That is to say that It is no longer a few leading apps that make the market but thousands of applications that each meet a specific need.

The majority of the first wave of applications do not really seek to exploit what is the strength of apps, such as the capabilities specific to smartphones (geolocation in motion, camera, etc.) or offline access. It is in a second step that apps Pure Player gained significant market shares. The most efficient are those that focus on an innovative proposal, seeking to create new uses among users. This is how new ways of interacting such as Instagram (a kind of Facebook but designed for mobile) are developing. The application becomes a concept in its own right.

Then, with the Companion Apps, Brands decide to approach the application in a new way, with a strong value proposition that speaks to their most engaged audience. Apps offer consumers alternative areas of engagement, for mobile situations where the primary engagement channel is not accessible, by creating new experiences. The video game sector seems to have understood this issue best. In a shooting game (”Call of Duty Companion App”), we prepare the equipment that we will use in the next game session. In a car racing game, you prepare the vehicle with it for the next race you will do when you come home from the office.

However, the others are not left behind. Moulinex, for example, offers an application that can control its more sophisticated models, but also offers recipes that make the most of the device's functionalities, including even a shopping list. In all these cases, the customer experience is enriched and the companion application becomes the vector of significant added value.

And when this kind of synergy is placed at the center of a product's value proposition, we enter the wonderful world ofInternet of Things: connected objects. Ultimately, each element of our environment can be equipped with electronic components allowing it to connect to a network.

The enterprise/business application

An ever increasing number of companies committed to digital transformation are developing their own tools, in the form of mobile applications. Each type of tool thus created, integrating digital solutions into ordinary business processes, also offers an additional area of development, data. The company will generate and collect a very large volume of data, which it can then analyze and use to improve its services.

An example ofinternal application very effective is the one developed for HostnFly services. In particular, this Airbnb concierge manages the cleaning of thousands of apartments in France. That is why they called on CapSens to develop an operational management application. Downloaded by cleaning providers, it presents to them in the form of a daily “to do” list of the apartments they are in charge of. It has all the particularities of access (entry code, floor). The inventory module allows you to take photos that will be automatically classified according to the address, and even allow you to report any type of inconvenience quickly. Côté operations management, team leaders can thus supervise more easily collaborators in the field.

HostnFly only uses a mobile app internally but other companies use a multitude of them, which is why “intra-organization stores” have emerged. Managing the deployment and maintenance of these applications on a large scale then becomes a real logistical challenge. It is with this in mind that services such as offered by Appaloosa are inserted.

A subsidiary of Octo Technology, created as an internal tool, the firm offers asimplified solution to manage a fleet of business applications. She thus works for BNP Paribas, Leroy Merlin or Vinci. All you have to do is upload your own applications to the platform, which, once installed on employees' mobile devices, will allow them tointeract as with a traditional app store. The applications will be installed and updated independently, and users will even be able to leave comments and notes. Like Appdome, Appaloosa also offers to merge your applications with itsSDK (development kit)and functions ofMAM (English acronym for mobile application management) complements foran optimal user experience, making applications more stable and secure. Thus, the employee can even choose to install these applications on their personal device.

The potential for the development of applications, whose next trend will undoubtedly beIoT, is still huge. As soon as we have mastered the issues and challenges of current platforms, we will have to face new ones such asinteroperability, thepredictive maintenanceas well ashuge amounts of data. When ourToothbrushes will film the intHeyThe laughter of our mouths, that ourFridges will be our home automation hubs, and that ourForks will tell us if we are eating too fast(well ok I'm exaggerating),mobile apps will no longer be more than one device among dozens of others.