AppsWorld 2016 was held this week in London so I went along to see what’s buzzing in the world of apps. Its billed by Informa as being ‘Europe’s largest gathering of passionate Developers, Mobile and Marketing professionals.’ The pre-event publicity also said that this was being held in conjunction with Bot World where we could discuss the opportunities in AI technology and Chatbots. At the event one half of the hall was marked as AppsWorld and the other half as VR & AR World. Apps, Bots, ChatBots, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality……………..a chap could easily get confused. My conclusion is that the world of apps is moving on quickly and AppsWorld was simply signalling the changing times. Someone soon will come up with the new idiom for this expanded new genre. Maybe TelAPPathy.
The blogsphere has been talking down apps of late. Despite Apple telling us that there are 100 apps downloaded for every iPhone sold, other studies show that we use fewer than a quarter of our downloaded apps in any given month and that the average app loses nearly 80% of its users within three days of being downloaded. In the U.S., 30% of the time when an app is downloaded, a person never opens it more than twice. None of this is very encouraging for App for developers which may be the real reason Apps have peaked. See below the data from Statista.

So perhaps its hard economics driving the app world forward rather than old fashion user demand. Technology advances, as ever, demand changes in user behaviour and the quest for artificial intelligence and is half cousin, virtual reality, is gathering pace. Are Bots a stepping stone along the way or a passing fad? It wasn’t easy to get answers at AppsWorld. There were lots of Bots evangelists on hand to make the case but I for one was struggling on the user cases.

Apps have dominated the mobile telecoms space for ten years and more now. The dash for Apps forged mobile device operating system consolidation. We went from over 30 to 2 in no time. Big name casualties like Nokia, Motorola and now BlackBerry have found that people want apps and app developers didn’t want to develop on lots of different platforms. Canute like behaviour lead to their downfall and cleared the way for iOS and Android dominance. It wasn’t only device manufacturers feeling the icy blasts of change. Apps were the vital spark that created the OTT challengers that have turned traditional Telco business models on their head. As customers have gradually perceived the value in the applications and the devices, their desire to pay a premium for a connection has waned, fuelled by the abundance of ‘free’ Wi-Fi. And yet, the App revolution, if we are to believe the soothsayers, has peaked and the world awaits a new king. I think in reality we have just seen the inevitable shake out of apps. There were always far too many for all of them to be making money. Rather than the end of apps we are just seeing the emergence of the small percentage of apps that people want to use and that have a viable business model. The natural selection process is ensuring the survival of the fittest and although the total number of apps may well now rapidly fall, there is little doubt that those in the top 20 of downloads will dominate the landscape for some time to come yet.

All of these thoughts were uppermost in my mind when strolling down the isles at AppsWorld but I’m sure the many others there were having their own thoughts about exactly what will be occupying the other half of the hall at AppsWorld 2017!