By 2016, the number of mobile apps downloads are estimated to reach 44 billion and the worldwide online app market is expected to grow from approximately $6.8 billion in 2010 to $25 billion by 2015.

As we get ready to launch the Awetest Native App Testing Module, we have been working closely with our enterprise (B2B) customers to understand their mobile roadmaps and, as expected, almost everyone we speak to has BIG plans for mobile. One of our customer teams, a large enterprise expense reporting app, was surprised to find out that approx. 5 % of its traffic was coming through iPads – a platform that wasn’t on the support roadmap until 12 months ago (when their customer support lines started blowing up with iPad issues!).

Here’s a great info graphic from Zendesk that breaks this down for you:

Some interesting facts from this info graphic:

  • iPhone is being deployed/tested at over 80% of the Fortune 500
  • iPad is being deployed/tested at 65% of the Fortune 500
  • North American market for mobile office applications will grow from $1.7B in 2010 to $6.85B in 2015.

So, its no secret, and no one’s disputing, the dominant role mobile and mobile apps are (and will be) playing in our lives and as we started researching market trends and stats – we came across another great presentation that puts together 100s of stats and data points to further reinforce the “mobile is taking over the world” mantra that pundits have been pushing for the last couple of years.

Some of the interesting facts from this presentation:
  • 70% of all US mobile device purchases are Smartphones
  • Apple already has over 25 Billion downloads from its mobile appstore
  • Globally, Mobile has higher penetration than Electricity

Obviously, the need to test mobile apps is going to grown alongside the application ecosystem. Furthermore, HTML5 blurs the lines between “Native” and “Browser” and will fuel the mobile “app” adoption and usage. Tim Cook on the last analyst call said iPad “Certification” wasn’t enough (80% of the Global 500 are certifying/testing the iPad). Instead Apple is “shifting our focus to penetration in enterprise”. Many would argue that Apple already has achieved significant ‘penetration’ inside the enterprise, but a focused push by the world’s most valuable company into the enterprise will surely change the enterprise computing landscape over the coming years.

Stay tuned…