Tag: mobile apps

Mobile games continue to show impressive growth

Mobile games are beginning to play a larger role in the lives of people around the world. Mobile analytics firm Distimo and mobile commerce firm MEF have released a new report concerning the trends that have emerged worldwide concerning the use of mobile application. The report shows that mobile games have come to represent a significant percentage of all application downloads. These games also make up the majority of the revenue that the applications sector is responsible for.

Games account for majority of app revenue

According to the report, mobile games represent 31% of all application downloads around the world. While this may seem like a small share of the given market, these games also represent 71% of the total revenue of Apple’s App Store and 89% of the revenue of Google Play. Many mobile games are free to play, but include in-game purchases that allow users to spend money to unlock additional content. Much of the revenue that these games produce come from these purchases.

Freemium model proves lucrative for developers and publishers

Approximately 7% of the revenue that mobile games are responsible for comes from actually purchasing a game. The so called “freemium” model, whereby games can be acquired for free but additional features must be purchased through small transactions, is the most lucrative model for mobile developers currently. Mobile games have come to represent one of the most lucrative sectors for the game industry as a whole and a growing number of prominent developers and publishers are beginning to take the mobile space more seriously as a result.

Mobile games likely to continue gaining momentum around the world

Mobile games are expected to continue seeing strong growth throughout the world, especially as these games begin making their way to emerging markets in Africa and Asia. China is currently home to one of the most robust mobile gaming markets in the world, with thousands of games being produced on a daily basis throughout the country.

The favorite apps are those that simplify retail purchasing, such as those that guide the in-store process.

The results of a new study by Parks Associates have now been released and have shown that over one in four shoppers of consumer electronic products in the United States who have broadband capable devices use mobile commerce apps on their smartphones in order to help them to make a purchasing decision.

They use a number of different features from these applications to help them to decide what is best.

Among the favorite mobile commerce app features, said the report, were functions for product research, QR code and barcode scanning, as well as apps that provide interactions with brands and the retailers themselves. The report on the research was published by Parks Associates under the title “Mobile Commerce: Keys to Mass Adoption”.

Forty three percent of American smartphone owners used mobile commerce to help buy a product in September.

Consumers – particularly those that shopped at Best Buy, Walmart, and Target – were also noted to be beginning to use their smartphones to make purchasing decisions via mobile commerce channels while they are actually in the stores. These three brands all encourage their shoppers to use their own apps while they are within their stores. According to Parks Associates, it is Target shoppers that are most likely to use these applications while they are looking to purchase a consumer electronics product.

According to a Parks Associates senior analyst, Jennifer Kent, “Consumers are using apps and smartphones to enhance their brick-and-mortar shopping experience, with Target shoppers emerging as the most enthusiastic app users.” She also stated that “Our research shows 54% of Target shoppers used at least one mobile commerce app while shopping in a store for CE, while only 38% of Walmart shoppers did the same.”

The analysts behind the mobile commerce report suggested that all retailers begin to embrace the smartphone friendly experience – both with their own apps and third party products – as a method of providing consumers an enhanced overall shopping experience, as well as a front line defense against losing sales to showrooming.