More 2013 App Forecasts

Here are a few points you may find of interested from Appcelerator's IDC 4th Quarter mobile Developer Report. (A survey taken from 2,837 Appcelerator mobile developers)


1. Be on the lookout for more apps in business, finance, education, medical, productivity, and mobile money fields. Appcelerator took data from surveys they have taken since 2010 and reported that for 2010 to 2012, interest in business apps have increased 20.3%, finance 8.2%,, education 8.1%, medical 8%, productivity 7.8%, mobile money 6.6%.

In contrast, interest in social networking apps have decreased 9.7% during that time and entertainment 7.4%.

I guess with Facebook and Google+ everyone has given up?


2. 92.9% of devs predict that it is "likely to very likely" that in 2013, mobile commerce will be a full throttle with retail companies pushing forth mobile shopping. And 86.4% predict that it is "likely to very likely" that shoppers will look up items on a retailer's site via their mobile device, WHILE shopping in the store.

Do you think so? That means a total change of in-store shopper behavior within the next year...


3. The survey also reveals names of vulnerable companies suceptible to disruption by a mobile-first startup: linkedin, Amazon, Blackberry, Apple, Facebook, Google, Pinterest, Rim, Micrisoft, Nokia, Ebay, Samsun, Windows, Twitter, Yahoo, Zynga

With that said, 62.4% said that it is "likely to very likely" that a mobile-first social startup could disrupt the market share from Facebook.


This is somewhat contradicting to the data in #1, where less devs are supposedly interested in developing social networking apps... but I guess that just means they figure "someone else" will develop the app most likely to disrupt Facebook?


Although there is a possibility, I don't know if it is "very likely." Facebook has knocked off popular social networking sites from around the world. Myspace went under renewal but is still dead, Mixi (once number 1 in Japan) and Cyworld in Korea are only a few victims to name when considering the international scene.

Kakao Talk (an messaging app in Korea that every smartphone user installs) tried to start up a mobile-first networking platform and although it gained many users due to pushing their solid Kakao Talk user base to set an account up, it has yet to shadow a threat to Facebook.


In any case, it's exciting to see what 2013 brings to the mobile world!
Have a happy new year!!