Almost every where you go these days, you hear the word "apps."
It seems that your product or service is not cool unless you have a
mobile app to accompany it. Your finger isn't on the pulse unless
you can whip out your mobile phone and produce an application for
the best restaurant around, the GPS coordinates for your location
or the name of the song playing on the radio.
It's an apps world and surviving means joining the
revolution.
So what exactly is an app? It's basically an application that can
be downloaded onto your smart phone or
mobile device, which allows you to perform certain functions you
would usually do through your computer, like: checking your email,
finding music, paying your bills and accessing customized
services.
For example, you can download a National
Australia Bank application to your smart phone that allows you
to do online banking, without having to go online.
Simple. Straightforward. No fuss.
Sometimes it feels like we are living in a world where the
futuristic ideas that were seen in old movies like Star Trek and
James Bond have finally come true. Unassuming mobile devices that
can capture and transmit sound, images and video instantly to
anywhere in the world at anytime of the day. It seems almost crazy
to think about. Yet is it happening, and the fast rate of
development is sometimes mindboggling.
A study released earlier this year indicated that the market for
mobile applications will hit $US 17.5 billion within the next three
years.
Downloads of mobile apps to handsets (mobile phones etc) will take
a massive jump from 7 million in 2009 to close to 50 million in
2012! This comes from a study commissioned by GetJar, the world's second
largest app store.
iPhone owners are
the most advanced users of mobile applications, probably because of
the large number of apps actually available to them through Apple.
From movies and TV shows, to recipes and health and fitness workout
plans. There are no limits to what you can get.
The Apple App store
is reported to have more than 150,000 iPhone applications and
recently passed the three billion download mark. Incredible and I
am sure many of us contributed to this figure!
Check out this blog post published by a psychologist in the US,
talking about Mobile CBT programs:
Positivity Works!