Let's talk about mobile apps

Google Play is closing in on 3 million apps, Apples' App Store is almost at 2 million. That's a tough space to get noticed. On the other hand, there's a lot of money to be earned on consumer spending and ad revenue. Find current data in this selected report: Global Consumer Spending in Mobile Apps Reached a Record $111 Billion in 2020, Up 30% from 2019.

There's an interesting angle when looking at app store statistics. They are a treasure trove of data on demand, monetization, and execution:

• Demand: what apps top the download charts?
• Willingness to pay: what apps top the revenue charts?
• Execution: how are apps rated? Can you do better?

This is something József Huszkó analyzed deeper. He collected lists of badly executed products and apps. This gives you data on apps that are in demand but have room for improvement. Have a look at Validated Ideas and Validates Ideas 2.0.

Additional opportunities when looking at the wider app ecosystem:

• There are alternative app stores. F-Droid for example only features Free and Open Source Software for Android. Is there a chance here? And make no mistake: there are ways to monetize open source.
• Finding something is hard when you have a million of options to choose from. Curation and discoverability are major issues neither Apple nor Google have solved.
• Where there is data, there are analytics services. But there are not only enterprises out there. Apptopia's pricing is just 😨. SensorTower doesn't even bother to list prices. So what about analytics services for Makers and SMEs?
• Even when analytics are not your thing, how about app-related Research-as-a-Service or Data-as-a-Service?

This post originally appeared in Basic Problem issue #15.

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