Mobile Apps – in the palm of your hand today! Where next??
Tanjai Kapoor
Chief Marketing Officer, MBA ★ Healthcare & Hospitals ? P&L ★ Brand Elevation ★ Digital Marketing ★ Growth Strategy
Can you imagine spending one day without your phone? The very thought makes you a bit anxious, right? Whether it is the act of hiring a cab through an app, ordering a pizza, checking your Gmail, downloading the latest Netflix thriller or shopping online, you will instantly reach for your smartphone. The phone is your omnipresent companion and one of the most versatile accessories in your life.
Mobile technology and apps continue to flourish with their awe-inspiring ability to influence almost every aspect of the way we live and interact with the world at large. There is no other technology in the world that 86% of the world population owns. Mobile technology has freed people and businesses from being chained to physical places. There are an estimated 6.92 billion smartphone users world-wide, and subscriptions estimated to grow to over 7.86 billion in the next 5 years. Smartphone penetration is ~82% in the UK, Germany, France and the USA. Not surprisingly, more and more businesses are developing mobile apps to increase their sales and build strong brand recognition. There is a new kind of digital battle afoot – the fight to occupy space on your smartphone’s home screen.
??The Rapid Evolution of Mobile
If we just stop to think, how quickly has mobile progressed over time. Remember your first cell phone? Not so long ago you were playing Snake and sending basic text messages to friends. In just a few years, mobile has evolved to become the central mode of communication for us. It is rare to see a person without a mobile device now. ??????????
Not only have the devices themselves and our adoption of them evolved, but the capabilities have also advanced rapidly. The Snake game on the phone was introduced less than 20 years ago on all Nokia mobile phones in 1998. Now a standard smartphone can replace almost every other peripheral device, such as maps, calendars, alarm clocks, music players, cameras, and desktop computers.
When Research In Motion launched the Blackberry in 2001, the ability to text and use email on a mobile phone changed the way consumers perceived their mobile devices and increased reliance upon them. The iPhone launch in 2007 and the introduction of the App Store in 2008 changed the way we looked at smartphones and their utility. In 2010, Apple’s first iPad made app usage even more fun and engaging.
The Early Years: Global TV vs. PC vs. Mobile Shipments, 1999 -2013
Mobile Shipments = 4-5x unit volume of TV and PC…just 10 years since inception
As Guy Levy-Yurista, CTO, AirPatrol remarks, “With the acceleration of technological innovation and adoption, we will be seeing over the next 5-7 years the move from one billion computing platforms (the PC) to 10 billion mobile computing platforms (smartphones) and then to the 100 billion computing devices (Internet of Things). Each rapid transition will disrupt the market in unforeseeable ways, presenting significant opportunities for players who are both attentive and agile.”?
?? Mobile Consumer Behaviour
Key Advantages of Mobile apps
1.??????Mobile apps deliver an unprecedented user experience that is more personal than browsing a website
2.??????Apps offer ease of use, literally in hand and launch through mobile widgets
3.??????Mobile apps can interconnect with the in-built features of the mobile device such as GPS, camera, touch screen, fingerprint sensor and Bluetooth
4.??????Apps can be precisely designed for a particular operating system to offer the best functionality
5.??????Apps can be configured to operate continuously even when offline
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Global App downloads are estimated to cross 299 billion in 2023, up from approximately 247 billion global app downloads in 2020. TikTok topped the list with 672 million downloads in 2022.
???Mobile apps across industries
With the rapid rise of mobile apps, it is not surprising that this is now creating an ecosystem across education, healthcare, entertainment, life style, finance and retail. First adopted by consumer brands, now even B2B brands are realizing that they have to incorporate mobile apps as part of their business strategy. Apps can be used not just for increased sales and customer acquisition, but also as a customer service, feedback and retention mechanism. Apps can be to engage and inform employees and distribution partners on company news, policies, and monitor satisfaction levels.
Category of Apps used by Consumers (a 30-day period survey)
?? Mobile Apps in the Banking sector: 8 Key Goals
A recent global survey of 114,696 bank consumers by Bain Financial services shows that when it comes to the banking experience, institutions are far better off concentrating on creating great mobile experiences than on upgrading their physical locations. Customers are one-third more likely to enjoy a mobile transaction than a bank visit; those who use branches are three times more likely to switch banks than those who don't; a branch visit is 2.3 times more likely to end up with an annoyed customer than using an app. The survey found that those who use apps frequently are 40 percent less likely to switch banks.
Says Prasad, a 55-year-old executive from Bangalore, “I use my bank app daily, to check my balance, to transfer money to my son studying in Canada, pay my car loan EMI and check credit card payments. I use the bank app to review my mutual fund portfolio and even create FDs.” He says that instead of visiting the bank at least 12 times a year earlier, now he goes hardly once a quarter if he needs to get a draft made or deposit cash.
WeChat and Paytm app users can pay merchants and utilities, send money to friends, deposit investments into money market accounts, book travel tickets, borrow money and carry out other daily financial transactions. This app shows how payments, commerce and social media can converge.
No surprise, that virtual banks are emerging as a potentially viable alternative to traditional brick and mortar banks supplemented by online banking. Mobile banking is now gaining momentum in developing countries and short of dispensing cash like an ATM, almost all transactions can now be performed seamlessly from anywhere, any time. This has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of mobile banking transactions, and a moderate decline in Internet banking transactions.
Branches are fading from the landscape. NatWest said recently it would shutter 23 branches in England and Wales in the next six months, while Lloyds Banking Group announced it would close 40 branches. HSBC announced it would close 114 branches in the UK starting April 2023 and move to mobile banking. US banks closed a net 2,927 branches during 2021, with financial institutions closing almost 4000 branches, which was 38% more closures than in 2020. A report from Self Financial, a fintech firm, predicts US bank branches may become extinct by 2034. Trends show that the rate of bank closures doubles every three years, and the number of bank branches could fall to 40,000 by 2027 and then plunge to 16,000 by 2030, a level seen in 1965.
? Banks should focus on 8 key goals in developing apps:
??...to be continued. Part 2: Mobile Apps in the Healthcare Sector https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/healthcare-mobile-apps-connected-patient-tanjai-kapoor
About the author:
Tanjai Kapoor is a marketing professional with an MBA from IIM. He has over 25 years of industry experience in healthcare, hospitals, telecom and manufacturing. He was recently the head of marketing at Paras Health, AIG Hospitals and Apollo Hospitals, and earlier the India head for Gather Health. He can be reached on +91 99800 96205 / [email protected].
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