What Are the Different Types of Mobile Apps? Breaking Down Industries and Functionalities
At this point, apps are an integral part of our daily lives. The marketplace is crowded with all types of mobile apps. Today, even businesses who never would've needed apps in the past are getting into the game.
While some are doing their best to
stay ahead of the tech curve, many are simply meeting customer demand for an
app that makes their lives easier. As such, there is a wide variety of apps
that fit into an increasingly vast array of categories. How many categories, do
you ask?
As of the publication date of this
article, there are 32 categories in Google Play and 24 in the App Store, but I
think they've gone a little overboard. To my account, there are 6 defining
categories that you need to understand before you begin developing your app.
best android
application development companies in Saudi Determining where your mobile app idea
fits is an important step toward making your idea into a reality.
Top 6 Types of Mobile Apps
1. Lifestyle Mobile Apps
Lifestyle apps have gone from
strength to strength in recent years. A lifestyle app is one that accelerates
or supports the individual facets that define your lifestyle. By this I mean
those types of mobile applications related to:
Physical aptitude
Have a date
Food
Music
Travel
The beauty of these apps is that
once they're part of a user's lifestyle repertoire, they'll likely be there
forever. These are the apps people turn to on a daily basis to find the next
song, restaurant, or destination. They are the apps that help them find
themselves, what they like and dislike, and where they are going next.
At the risk of going too deep, I
will stop there. If you're developing a lifestyle app, you'll need to do
something to wow your user.
application
development company in Riyadh Something your competitors don't do.
Something its users simply cannot live without.
Some examples of lifestyle apps
are:
Spotify
tripadvisor
Uber
2. Social media mobile apps
Social media apps are some of the
most popular types of mobile apps available. We build our social networks, and
most of us communicate with them every day. Facebook alone reports more than a
billion active daily users.
Naturally, we want to have the ease
of access that a mobile app provides. Social media apps need to be fun, fast,
and continually integrate the expanding social media features they support. Today's
society shares more about its daily life than ever. For that reason, even apps
that don't necessarily fall into the social media category may want to include
social sharing functionality.
As an example, let's take a look at
the popular running and cycling app, Strava. Not only does it track your
activities, but it lets you compare your stats with other people in your
network (and even strangers). Essentially, you can form an online running
association or even an entire team without having to meet face-to-face. Many
other apps allow you to share a product,
top 10 apps
development companies in Jeddah high score, or news story on your social
network. They make it easy for their users to share something they're
passionate about without ever leaving the app.
Consider adding social sharing
features to your app if you will be providing a service or selling a product
that your users can share with their networks. This functionality will keep
your users coming back to share again and again as they compare with your
networks.
Some common social networking
applications are:
Facebook
Instagram
pinterest
Snapchat
3. Useful mobile apps
Utilities are the types of mobile
apps that we can use most often without thinking of them as apps. Many of them
come pre-installed on your device and serve only one function.
Some examples of common types of
mobile apps in the utility category are:
Reminders
Calculator
Flashlight
Time
These are the types of mobile apps
that we tend to use more often, but for shorter periods of time. Typically
you'll just open your calculator to solve an equation (like calculating a tip
at a restaurant) and then save it.
Do your best to increase the frequency
of your utility app to successfully monetize it. Short visits are not as
profitable, but many of them can add up to a significant income stream.
4. Mobile gaming/entertainment apps
The games and entertainment
category is huge and as such very competitive. Games are one of the most
obvious mobile app categories and need little explanation. iOS
app development company in Dammam These types of apps are popular with
developers because they attract users several times a week, sometimes several
times a day.
In the most successful games, both
the frequency and the duration of the game are high. Work to make your game as
“addictive” as possible by offering incentives to users who come back every day
or a certain number of days in a row.
Some examples of game applications
are:
angry Birds
clash of clans
subway surfer
5. Mobile productivity apps
While productivity might sound like
one of the most boring types of mobile apps, it's an incredibly popular
category. These types of apps help their users get a task done quickly and
efficiently, making sometimes mundane tasks easier and, dare I say, fun.
Examples of productivity apps are,
well, a lot of Google and Apple products, like:
documents
Leaves
Wallet/Pay
In addition to applications such
as:
evernote
list of prodigies
These kinds of apps are indispensable
when done right. That means helping your user get a task done easier, faster
and more efficiently than your competitors. Convenient features that get you
from point A to point are what set these types of mobile apps apart, so get
creative and find a way to do things no one else is doing.
6. News/Information Point of Sale
Mobile Apps
The news and information apps are
pretty straightforward. top
10 mobile app developers in Kuwait They give your users the news and
information they're looking for in an easy-to-understand layout that
efficiently navigates them to the things that matter most to them.
Examples of different types of
popular news apps are:
buzz
smart news
Google News & Weather
Feedly
flip board
Yahoo News Roundup
Reddit
Linkedin Pulse
These are the biggest names in
news, and they all offer something different. If you're developing a news app,
you'll need to find a unique way to communicate with your users because, let's
face it, news will all be the same... it's news. Your chance to shine is in how
you deliver it. Create something unique and tie it to the type of news you'll
be reporting on to give you that special something your users are looking for.
Google Play/App Store search
You currently have two main options for publishing your app. Android apps live on Google Play, Apple apps live on the App Store. Both markets are massive, each with millions of searches and downloads each day. That said, they are overcrowded. top mobile application development company in Oman That level of exposure is something every app developer under the sun is looking for. It's up to you to make sure your app ends up in front of the right people, and publishing a native app on any of these markets is a good place to start.
Recommendations
All app builders need to understand
how to make an app spread like wildfire. I'll talk about that in the next
section, but know now that recommendations from adoring fans are worth their
weight in gold. Friends telling friends about your app is a very effective way
to market.
Think about it. A recommendation
doesn't require someone to identify that they have a problem, search the
market, weed out the competition, and download your app. Instead, their trusted
advisor has told them about this new app that they need to download.
They will search for your app by
name and download it without hesitation.
There you go!
Now you know all about the top
mobile app categories on the market. Hopefully, this has helped you determine
the category your app fits into and a way to help your app stand out from the
crowd. You are almost ready to start the development process. best
android application development companies in Muscat If you have any
questions or just want to pitch your idea to a panel of experts, we're here to
talk. We only want to work with you if both parties decide it's a good fit, so
feel free to reach out and see what happens with our short, no-obligation
consultation.
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