On the heels of the Xiam study that showed search as the top sites on mobile today, it looks like money will be tops in 2012. The top 10 consumer mobile apps in 2012 will include mobile money transfer, LBS, search, browsing, health monitoring, payments, NFC, ads, IM, and music reprots Gartner Inc.'s latest study.
No. 1: Money Transfer
This service allows people to send money to
others using Short Message Service (SMS). Its lower costs, faster speed
and convenience compared with traditional transfer services have strong
appeal to users in developing markets, and most services signed up
several million users within their first year. However, challenges do
exist in both regulatory and operational risks. Because of the fast
growth of mobile money transfer, regulators in many markets are piling
in to investigate the impact on consumer costs, security, fraud and
money laundering. On the operational side, market conditions vary, as
do the local resources of service providers, so providers need
different market strategies when entering a new territory.
No. 2: Location-Based Services
Location-based services (LBS) form part
of context-aware services, a service that Gartner expects will be one
of the most disruptive in the next few years. Gartner predicts that the
LBS user base will grow globally from 96 million in 2009 to more than
526 million in 2012. LBS is ranked No. 2 in Gartner's top 10 because of
its perceived high user value and its influence on user loyalty. Its
high user value is the result of its ability to meet a range of needs,
ranging from productivity and goal fulfillment to social networking and
entertainment.
No. 3: Mobile Search
The ultimate purpose of mobile search is
to drive sales and marketing opportunities on the mobile phone. To
achieve this, the industry first needs to improve the user experience
of mobile search so that people will come back again. Mobile search is
ranked No. 3 because of its high impact on technology innovation and
industry revenue. Consumers will stay loyal to some search services,
but instead of sticking to one or two search providers on the Internet,
Gartner expects loyalty on the mobile phone to be shared between a few
search providers that have unique technologies for mobile search.
No. 4: Mobile Browsing
Mobile browsing is a widely available
technology present on more than 60 percent of handsets shipped in 2009,
a percentage Gartner expects to rise to approximately 80 percent in
2013. Gartner has ranked mobile browsing No. 4 because of its broad
appeal to all businesses. Mobile Web systems have the potential to
offer a good return on investment. They involve much lower development
costs than native code, reuse many existing skills and tools, and can
be agile -- both delivered and updated quickly. Therefore, the mobile
Web will be a key part of most corporate business-to-consumer (B2C)
mobile strategies.
No. 5: Mobile Health Monitoring
Mobile health monitoring is the use of IT and mobile telecommunications to monitor patients remotely, and could
help governments, care delivery organizations (CDOs) and healthcare
payers reduce costs related to chronic diseases and improve the quality
of life of their patients. In developing markets, the mobility aspect
is key as mobile network coverage is superior to fixed network in the
majority of developing countries. Currently, mobile health monitoring
is at an early stage of market maturity and implementation, and project
rollouts have so far been limited to pilot projects. In the future, the
industry will be able to monetize the service by offering mobile
healthcare monitoring products, services and solutions to CDOs. "Consumer mobile applications and services are no longer the
prerogative of mobile carriers," said Sandy Shen, research director at
Gartner. "The
increasing consumer interest in smartphones, the participation of
Internet players in the mobile space, and the emergence of application
stores and cross-industry services are reducing the dominance of mobile
carriers. Each player will influence how the application is delivered
and experienced by consumers, who ultimately vote with their attention
and spending power."
"The ultimate competition between industry players is for
control of the 'ecosystem' and user experience, and the owner of the
ecosystem will benefit the most in terms of revenue and user loyalty,"
Ms. Shen said. "We predict that most users will use no more than five
mobile applications at a time and most future opportunities will come
from niche market 'killer applications'."
No. 6: Mobile Payment
Mobile payment usually serves three
purposes. First, it is a way of making payment when few alternatives
are available. Second, it is an extension of online payment for easy
access and convenience. Third, it is an additional factor of
authentication for enhanced security. Mobile payment made Gartner's top
10 list because of the number of parties it affects -- including mobile
carriers, banks, merchants, device vendors, regulators and consumers --
and the rising interest from both developing and developed markets.
Because of the many choices of technologies and business models, as
well as regulatory requirements and local conditions, mobile payment
will be a highly fragmented market. There will not be standard
practices of deployment, so parties will need to find a working
solution on a case-by-case basis.
No. 7: Near Field Communication Services
Near field communication (NFC) allows
contactless data transfer between compatible devices by placing them
close to each other, within ten centimeters. The technology can be
used, for example, for retail purchases, transportation, personal
identification and loyalty cards. NFC is ranked No. 7 in Gartner's top
ten because it can increase user loyalty for all service
providers, and it will have a big impact on carriers' business models.
However, its biggest challenge is reaching business agreement between
mobile carriers and service providers, such as banks and transportation
companies. Gartner expects to see large-scale deployments starting from
late 2010, when NFC phones are likely to ship in volume, with Asia
leading deployments followed by Europe and North America.
No. 8: Mobile Advertising
Mobile advertising in all regions is
continuing to grow through the economic downturn, driven by interest
from advertisers in this new opportunity and by the increased use of
smartphones and the wireless Internet. Total spending on mobile
advertising in 2008 was $530.2 million, which Gartner expects to will
grow to $7.5 billion in 2012. Mobile advertising makes the top 10 list
because it will be an important way to monetize content on the mobile
Internet, offering free applications and services to end users. The
mobile channel will be used as part of larger advertising campaigns in
various media, including TV, radio, print and outdoors.
No. 9: Mobile Instant Messaging
Price and usability problems have
historically held back adoption of mobile instant messaging (IM), while
commercial barriers and uncertain business models have precluded
widespread carrier deployment and promotion. Mobile IM is on Gartner's
top 10 list because of latent user demand and market conditions that
are conducive to its future adoption. It has a particular appeal to
users in developing markets that may rely on mobile phones as their
only connectivity device. Mobile IM presents an opportunity for mobile
advertising and social networking, which have been built into some of
the more advanced mobile IM clients.
No. 10: Mobile Music
Mobile music so far has been
disappointing -- except for ring tones and ring-back tones, which have
turned into a multibillion-dollar service. On the other hand, it is
unfair to dismiss the value of mobile music, as consumers want music on
their phones and to carry it around. We see efforts by various players
in coming up with innovative models, such as device or service bundles,
to address pricing and usability issues. iTunes makes people pay for
music, which shows that a superior user experience does make a
difference.
Additional information is available in the Gartner report
"Dataquest Insight: The Top Ten Consumer Mobile Applications for 2012."
The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1205513.