15 things you probably never knew about mobile apps

Smartphone applications have completely changed the way of our life. They have opened up a world of possibilities, from ordering your favorite food to saving money, shopping, booking tickets and much more anytime, anywhere, without any restrictions. In particular, ecommerce applications are opening incredible opportunities for businesses to find the new customers.

You might have heard that “India is the largest country in terms of WhatsApp users” or that “Android is one and only winner in number of app downloads.” These facts never fail to amaze us.

As such, I have collected 15 interesting facts about mobile apps you probably never knew.

1. In summer 2015, more than 100 million apps were downloaded from the Apple App Store.

In summer 2015, Apple saw a huge growth in the number of application downloads, with more than 100 million downloads in total. Gaming apps were the most popular category with the share of 22.49 percent of all downloads, and business apps were the second most popular category with a share of 10.38 percent.

2. Android is king with 1.6 million total available apps

The Google Play Store is the leading app store with a total of 1.6 million Android apps. On the other hand, Apple’s iTunes is the second largest app store with a total of 1.5 million apps.

3. The average Android development rates per hour are the lowest in India and highest in North America

Research shows that the average price for Android development in India is just $26 per hour and is the highest in North America at $168 per hour.

4. India has the largest number of WhatsApp users, at 70 million users

WhatsApp is a global application with a strong user base of around one billion users worldwide, among which India is the largest country in terms of monthly active users. In May 2014, India had 50 million active users on WhatsApp, which increased drastically by 20 million within a short duration of 5 months. By October 2014, the total number of Indian WhatsApp users crossed over 70 million.

5. The most popular Android applications are downloaded more than 1 billion times

The most popular Android applications including Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Facebook and 8 others have more than 1 billion downloads each as per June 2015. Also, the majority of free and paid Android apps are downloaded more than 100 million and 1 million times respectively.

6. Facebook is the most used mobile application in 2015

Facebook alone acquired 76.8 percent of total smartphone users and the Facebook Messenger is the second most downloaded application at 62.5 percent. The other most used phone applications are YouTube and Google Play.

7. 66% of users spend most of their time on social apps

8. Android has more downloads, but iOS has a much higher revenue

9. Mobile applications are predicted to drive $77 billion in total revenue by 2017

10. By 2017,  the number of application downloads is expected to hit 268.69 billion

11. Apple users spend 24% more time on iPhone apps than on iPad apps

12. Personalization applications were the fastest growing smartphone application category in 2015

13. In the US, adult users spend an average of 4 hours 39 minutes per month on communication apps

14. Smartphone users spent the most time on gaming apps and the least time on lifestyle apps

15. Push messages lead to higher app user engagement