According to our calculations, about 2% of businesses need a mobile app. Another 50% needs a mobile version of their website. The rest might use a mobile site, but don't really need one.
A while ago mobile apps have become the new web pages of the modern times. Everyone seemed to need one, even for the most bizarre kinds of businesses. Right now the reality has become more like an internet bubble of the late 90’s, and overcharged apps can in fact be a laughable novelty. At first they were charged higher than web pages, but the market quickly caught up to that, and right now they’re about the same price. And that feels kind of justified, because it’s not so special anymore after almost a million apps and games on the market (iOS and Android combined). If someone wrote a million apps in about 4 years now, it must mean that there are plenty of app programmers out there.
The other factor is the mobile market fragmentation. With iOS and Android plus all the competitors, to have an app for everyone, one must develop for many platforms, often different technology-wise. Websites that stretch to the mobile screen size will simply eliminate the need for most apps. Sure – people trust apps more than websites, as some of the images are pre-cached and feel more responsive, but that will soon change with LTE coming to power in more and more countries each day.
But the most important thing here is to understand why do we need apps at all. Games, Entertainment and Social apps are self explanatory. Utility apps (like wikipedia, calculators, measure converters etc.) are a nice thing to have to. But who wants an app of a company that makes sugar-filled soda? Or cars? How many times do we change cars in a lifetime? Probably less, than we change smartphones, but all rare occurrences will surely do with just a mobile website. A small percent of people travels a lot, so they might need a hotel-chain app, but most will have to do with a generic “search all hotels” app, and that market is already saturated.
Who else needs mobile apps? Seriously. That doesn’t of course mean that apps are dead. They can still make impressions (and money) but mostly with a creative idea of their makers. Not apps made for a client. Think Opus, Instagram and such.
Do you know any business that’s not saturated with apps, and REALLY needs them?