Tag: mobile applications

Mobile apps boost car rentals but don’t help sales

| February 19, 2016

The auto industry is seeing a notable shift in the way consumers are interacting with companies.

According to data from AAA, there has been a considerable shift in the decision people have been making with regards to car ownership and the use of mobile apps has played an important role in this new trend.

There was a time when nearly all teens got their drivers’ licenses as fast as they could, but this has changed.

Today’s teens are used to having mobile apps available that will help them to get the most out of public transportation. They know when the next bus will arrive and can plan around the train delay because they have an application that has alerted them to this information. Moreover, most cab companies, not to mention ride share programs, have apps that allow them to have a ride drive right up to their door. This has led to a massive change in the auto industry because the urgency to buy a car simply isn’t as strong, anymore.

For those who do get their licenses, many are using mobile apps to rent cars when they need them, instead of buying.

Mobile Apps - Car RentalFor many people, the excitement of car ownership simply isn’t there, anymore. Cars are expensive, on their own, but the cost of maintaining them has been climbing, insuring them is more expensive than ever, and even parking has become cost-prohibitive in many places. The affordability of fuel isn’t enough to offset the expenses. Moreover, with streets that are continually jammed with cars, the sense of “freedom” isn’t nearly what it used to be.

AAA data shows that, two decades ago, about two out of every teens had a license by the time they turned 18. Currently, that figure has dropped to just over half of teens at that age. The trend started to change in 2010, through the popularity of smartphones and other mobile devices that could use apps to make it easy to grab a ride or rent one, while on the go, as well as to make public transit easier and more convenient to use. Instead of waiting at a bus stop and wondering when it will arrive, you can arrive at the last moment and know you’re on time.

While auto manufacturers have not been unaware of this trend, mobile apps don’t appear to have been helping them as much as they have been supporting the public transport, ride share and rental industries.

Study shows mobile apps are inaccurate fitness trackers

| February 8, 2016

The results of new research from the University of Toronto looked into the top three applications.

The outcome of a new study, conducted by the University of Toronto, has revealed that the three most downloaded mobile apps for fitness tracking aren’t nearly as accurate as their users likely believe them to be.

The U of T study indicated that fitness apps have a notably lower accuracy rate than regular pedometers.

When it comes to measuring how much a person walks in a day, standard pedometers were found to be considerably more accurate than the top three downloaded mobile apps that are meant to be used for the same purpose. This is concerning as those applications have been increasing in their popularity and are used by people who are attempting to motivate themselves to reach a more healthful physical activity level every day.

While messaging mobile apps remain the most popular, health and fitness applications have high engagement rates.

Mobile Apps - Fitness appIn fact, a Flurry Analytics survey conducted last September on behalf of Yahoo Canada actually showed that health and fitness apps scored higher on their engagement rate. It is estimated that they are on 11 percent of smartphones. There may be fewer of them than messaging apps, but they cause greater engagement with their users than those more popular rivals.

Due to this high engagement rate, it has made this type of mobile application extremely appealing to companies of all sizes. Everyone from giants to tiny startups are trying to carve out a piece of the market for themselves.

Unfortunately, in this haste to take part, it doesn’t look as though all the participants are taking the care that would be required to make sure their mobile apps are as accurate for users as the main alternative – using a traditional pedometer. The apps that were considered by the study included Moves, Runtastic and Accupedo. The authors of the report stated that “the most commonly downloaded smartphone applications are neither valid nor consistent in measuring step counts.” Several tests were run on both Android and Apple devices in order to allow the researchers to come to this conclusion.