The evolution of mobile applications for business

To approach this content, we are going to move to the origin of mobile applications. You will be tired of hearing about them and reading everywhere the concept of 'mobile app', which comes directly from the English word application. These are software applications designed for mobile and tablet devices.

Although some people trace its origin to the first mobile phones in the 1990s, it seems that the term app started to be used several years later, in 2008, coinciding with the launch of the App Store (Apple) and the Android Market, better known as Google Play. This was the moment when apps started to become popular, especially for mobile devices.

It is difficult to describe such a complex path, but we are going to try to do it in this post. Are you coming with us?

when does the mobile app boom happen?

It was 1998 when Nokia, the Swedish telecommunications company, added a small application to its mobile phones so that users could entertain themselves in times of boredom, on the bus, on the underground, or anywhere else. Remember the famous Snake? Twenty years later, the world of mobile applications is not what it used to be.

We could say that the boom of these apps occurs daily, as the market has experienced a boom in recent years. In Spain alone, around 4 million apps are downloaded daily, according to the Privalia Mobile Report 2018. The same portal also states that "a third of Spaniards spend one day a week browsing mobile apps", and "only 14% keep installed all the apps they download". These figures leave no one indifferent, and, at present, our country has around 22 million active app users.

The arrival of the App Store and Android Market

With the arrival of the new millennium, the first smartphones began to be created, becoming more and more powerful. In 2007, Steve Jobs presented what would become the jewel in the crown, the iPhone. The world of mobile applications began to change completely, and in 2008 the App Store arrived, ideal for creating applications to be marketed through it. And although it initially started with 500 applications, today it already has more than 2 million.

Google soon began to work on launching the Android Market, offering many possibilities to users and reaching a billion downloads two years later. The App Store achieved this in 2009, and since then, these figures have not stopped growing.

how many mobile apps do you have on your phone?

What's hot in business apps

This phenomenon has gradually spread to companies, who have seen these platforms as a golden opportunity to reach their customers and users. The emergence of apps has had an impact on the world of e-commerce, one of the sectors that has benefited most from this trend. Users can make online purchases through business applications, and companies continue to work on developing software to adapt to new changes, especially in the purchasing habits of customers. Applications are a potential weapon.

Businesses need apps both internally, with so-called ERP, and externally, with corporate apps. In the former, apps cover different functional areas and are instrumental in running business processes, being more flexible and productive. In the latter, brands can gain visibility, be available 24x7 days a week and improve customer communication.

The growth of applications has been so high that their development has become one of the most valued professions today, and these systems provide companies with a series of significant advantages for their activity:

• They increase visibility and online traffic.
• They are a means of direct communication with users and clients.
• They save on advertising costs.
• They are a solution for resolving doubts or customer service without time limits.
• Customers can access them at any time and place.
• They allow customer loyalty.

These are just some of the reasons why companies are increasingly turning to the development of applications for their business. They are undoubtedly helping them to grow thanks to the adoption of their technology, as they are not only a way to make it easier for users to meet companies, but also an advantage for them to make themselves known and increase their sales.

The role of operating systems

Nowadays, hardly anyone considers a mobile phone to be of quality if it does not have an operating system. The decision to buy Android or iOS is determined by the applications it comes with or can download. Price, quality and other factors play a part in this decision.

In short, we can say that mobile apps are a fundamental part of operating systems and that their development is increasingly in demand by companies.

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