Yahoo-owned mobile analytics company, Flurry, released its annual state of mobile report on Wednesday which unsurprisingly pointed towards the continued worldwide trend of increased mobile usage with a 58 per cent growth over the course of 2015.
However, what is significant to note is that with the past seven years seeing a boom in smartphone permeation, the growth figure is actually down from that of the previous years. In 2014, Flurry had pegged the growth at 76 per cent and in 2013 the figure stood at 103 per cent.
Flurry which tracks over 2.1 billion smart devices across the globe on monthly basis says that while the growth figures have seen a sharp decline, they still remain stunning as “rates like these are rare in mature industries”.
Most of this growth can be attributed to existing users rather than new users and the report claims that approximately 40 per cent of the gross 58 per cent growth can be traced back to existing users. This is up from the 20 per cent in 2014 and 10 per cent in 2013, pointing to a future in which the worldwide engagement of existing users will become more important, rather than looking at bringing in fresh clusters of users.
The main categories of apps which witnessed a significant amount of growth are personalisation, news and magazines, productivity and lifestyle and shopping.
Right at the top, the report estimates that personalisation apps saw their sessions balloon by more than 332 per cent over the course of 2015. Most of the personalisation users sought was in the form of emoji packages and keyboards which are integrated into popular connectivity apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
News and Magazine apps grew by an impressive 135 per cent, in congruence with the trend of a rapid shift in the way people consume media, moving from television and PCs to smartphones in general and phablets in particular. According to the report, phablets have become the preferred point of media consumption for people world over.
Productivity apps grew by 125 per cent and lifestyle and shopping grew by 81 per cent, down by 93 per cent from the previous year’s figures.
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Simar Singh is one of the youngest members of the BW team. A fresh graduate from IIMC, she also holds a degree in political science from LSR. She enjoys covering power, startups, lifestyle and a little bit of tech.
