An Overview of 2020 from a Mobile perspective

9 mins read

Did you worry you spent too much time on your phone these past months? Maybe even for the last year? Statistics say we spent 1.6 trillion hours on a mobile device in 2020. But don’t blame yourself too much, it’s not you, it’s Corona, or at least that’s what I like to tell myself. But let’s see the bright side in these unfortunate times, some of us -anxious individuals-, get to work remotely from home, participate in online classes, shop online and avoid stress-inducing situations like not knowing if you should shake hands or give a hug when meeting with friends, or nervously say “You too” to a waiter who wishes you to enjoy your food.

All jokes aside, Appssemble’s company culture embraces accountability. Keeping everyone safe is a priority for us, so our company moved remotely from home, where we continue to design and develop native mobile apps, fast & on budget.

As I was saying, 2020 was THE year for mobile devices, meaning it was also the year of the highest mobile use. Kind of ironic if you think about it since we lived perhaps one of the most immobile year of our life. Now let’s talk mobile.

Average Amount of Time Spent Generally on a Mobile Device

Let’s see how much time we spent on a mobile device in general. App Annie was the one that said we spent 1.6 trillion hours in 2020 on mobile devices so far, and that’s only in the first half of the year. Impressive, indeed!

According to eMarketer, adults (+18 y.o) spend an average of 3 hours, 50 minutes a day on their smartphones, generally speaking, dethroning TV use;

and an average of 3:35 minutes in apps and 25 minutes in a browser.

The coronavirus has advanced mobile use by 2 to 3 years — accelerating our transition to the world of mobile-first. (AppAnnie, 2020)

Habits on mobile devices

Since most things moved into quarantine and remote work, we developed an obvious need of mobile use, whether it is for working, ordering food, paying utilities, education, fitness & health, entertainment or connecting with friends.

Smartphones have a clear dominance in the mobile-use statistics, almost everybody owns one nowadays. In 2019, Statista said there were 4.8 Billion people using phones, in 2020 it reached 6.95 Billion and in 2021 it’s expected to get up to 7.1 Billion worldwide. Therefore, our homes will remain the epicentre of our social and working lives, with 43% ‘At-Home’ behaviours linked to mobile use.

Next, let’s see both of Apple Store and Google Play’s 2020 habits in different App Categories such as Gaming, Education, Entertainment, Health & Fitness and Shopping.

Is there anyone here who didn’t play anything from the Gaming category in 2020 while staying at home? I’m 99.9% sure there isn’t since it’s the most popular category by downloads. Whether it’s an adventure game, arcade, educational, sport or strategy, almost everybody relaxes their mind by engaging in some sort of online game, whether it’s on an app or in a browser. As a result, mobile playtime increased by 62% in 2020. (GameAnalytics, 2020). Top Gaming Apps Worldwide by Download are Among Us, Subway Surfers, Join Clash 3D, Garena Free Fire, Genshin Impactand others.

The Educational category is thriving this year giving the fact that we live in the informational era, where everything is accessible, convenient and mobile, straight from the comfort of our home. It’s not so unnatural anymore to be studying online, whether it is for academic purposes or personal development. Top Educational Apps Worldwide by Download are Google Classroom, YouTube Kids, Duolingo-Language Lessons, Photomath, Brainly-Homework Help App and Kahoot! Play &Create Quizzes. We might even include the most popular-by-use video conference platforms: Microsoft Teams, Google Meets and Zoom Meeting.

What did we do in 2020 with all this spare time that we had? After a good session of playing and/or studying, we amused ourselves with various choices from the Entertainment category of course. Top Entertainment Apps Worldwide seem to be: Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Prime Video, Apple Music, Twitch, TED, Google Play Books and TuneIn.

At the opposite side of ‘motionlessness’, we find a healthy category of apps where people liked to spend their time in 2020. The Fitness & Health category. The benefits of exercises are well known, but in order to enjoy the rewards, you need to stick to a consistent and disciplined routine. This is where technology comes into help with apps where you can find a virtual personal trainer, specific exercises or a training partner to keep you motivated to work at home. This category is also known for its versatility, for its multiple subcategories such as Running, Walking, Activity Tracking, Cardio or full-on workouts. According to Forbes, Top Health & Fitness Apps Worldwide by Download are Calm, FitBit, MyFitnessPal, Headspace, Flo, Muscle Booster Workout, Better Me, Fitness Coach, Samsung Health, Home Workout.

Customers began using their mobile devices for product testing as soon as they hunkered down at home and 69% of internet users said they prefer searching for feedback on their phones rather than contacting an in-store employee. And I understand that completely! That being said because individuals like to search online, they obviously also like to shop online. Two thirds — 66% of internet users use Shopping applications on their mobile devices, 57% of them being between the ages of 25–34. Top Shopping Apps Worldwide are Wish, SHEIN, Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, Joom, Alibaba and Pinduoduo.

Consumers Downloaded 33 Billion New Apps in Q3(3rd quarter) 2020

Google Play downloads rose to 25 billion, 10% year over year, while the iOS AppStore downloads grew to nearly 9 billion year-over-year by 20%.

Non-gaming applications accounted for 55% of all downloads on GooglePlay, while the figure was marginally higher at 70% on iOS.

Sports, Tools and Entertainment were the highest at the category level by downloads on Google Play.

Sports, Picture and Video and Entertainment remained the biggest download categories on iOS.

Consumers Spent a Record $28B in Apps in Q3 2020

On the iOS AppStore, spending grew by 20% year-on-year to $18 billion in Q3 2020; spending on Google Play grew by 35% year-on-year to more than $10 billion.

On Android, the largest categories were games, social and entertainment by consumer spending. The three largest categories of consumer spending were on iOS, games, entertainment and photo and video.

Design & Development trends

Design

It’s important to bear in mind that the target of the designer must always be the same for these current trends that we have right now, by using new methods and innovations in order to change the user’s lives. Whenever you analyze a specific trend, consider it to make the best user experience in the light of the importance it provides to consumers. And the latest UI/UX Design Trends seem to be the following:

Development

With the growth of mobile apps, it should come as no surprise that opportunities to work as a mobile developer will only increase in the coming years. Burning Glass, which compiles and analyzes millions of jobs across the world, predicts that mobile app developer jobs will rise by 30.7% over the next decade.

So here we are at the end, the end of the article, the year and hopefully the end of Covid-19 pandemic and its restrictions. Let me give you a short summarization of the content: we spent 1.6 Trillion Hours on Mobiles Devices in 2020; there are 6.94 Billion people using phones; people enjoyed playing games throughout the year, therefore playtime increased by 62% in 2020; we started using more Fitness & Health apps; people readjusted eCommerce; most popular apps in 2020 are Facebook, TikTok, Zoom, WhatsApp, Instagram, Google Meets and YouTube; the mobile design trend changed; consumers downloaded 33 Billion New Apps and spent $28 Billion in Applications Store.

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