According to research and advisory firm, Gartner, mobile data traffic will grow 59% this year. With the global population increasing at around 1.14%, this figure shows how much more data mobile users will be accessing over the course of this year and how dependent more and more people will become on mobile data.
Gartner released the mobile data projections and other related data in a Q&A style release which featureda its research director, Jessica Ekholm. Among key trends highlighted by Jessica include the fact that mobile apps will be the biggest driver for the growth in mobile data traffic this year. Mobile apps or mobile applications differ from the online content(internet) in that they can be downloaded and installed on mobile devices (on compatible mobile operating systems) and can be accessed online or offline, whereas online content which is browser dependent is available only when there is a connection to the internet.
Mobile apps have become hugely popular and have seen unparalleled growth in the last four years. The popularity of mobile apps is attributable to a number of reasons, namely:
The emergence of native and third-party application stores allow mobile users to quickly browse, buy, download and install hundreds of apps on their mobile devices;
The rollout of mobile data packages which come bundled with selected mobile apps such as Facebook and Twitter see the onboarding of millions of users to the app culture;
Mobile apps sit on today's smartphone screens as one-touch icons which users can launch in seconds without having to remember and type out the full web address and login details;
Mobile apps are highly optimized for smaller screens and key-board-less navigation and are adapted to the different device operating systems, ensuring the best end-user experience on most devices;
A lot of highly demanded on-the-go content such as streaming music, photo-sharing apps and location based apps such as those providing location tracking (GPS), restaurant listing and parking locators are all available only as mobile apps (Instagram is a great example).
Mobile apps are integrated with the many functionalities of the mobile devices, for example, an image editing app will allow in-app picture taking thus removing the need for the users to snap and save an image locally before uploading it onto the application; and
Mobile apps are now being provided on newer mobile devices such as health wearables, smart watches and any other connected device with its own operating system and display unit; these add to the number of apps available and increase the usage of mobile applications.
According to Jessica, mobile apps complement other mobile content in pushing the phenomenal uptake of mobile data. Video streaming in particular, said Jessica, will be driving 50% of mobile traffic this year and is poised to become the single most important type of content to be transported over mobile networks in near future. The rise is video traffic on mobile networks corresponds to the shift in video/TV consumption habits. The preference among consumers to watch personalized content, which is available on-demand and via per-piece subscription and which can be accessed on mobile devices such as tablets and media players (which can then stream the content to fixed display units) has contributed to the rise in video traffic. Service providers are already rolling out OTT video services and mobile TV services to capitalize on these trends and are expected to see more monetization opportunities in mobile video traffic that promises users the best video content, as they want it and when they want it.
The mobile apps market, in the meantime, has become very lucrative. App developers are rolling out thousands of apps every month to tap on the estimated US$25 billion dollar market, especially across segments such as mobile gaming and mobile commerce, which offer easier monetization, via downloads, in-app sales and advertising. App developers are expected to continue improvising their market strategies to capitalize on the growth in this market, working with enterprises, retail brands, apps stores and more importantly, mobile operators who are developing their own one-stop apps stores to enhance their content bundles and multi-screen offers, enrich their shared plans with more shareable content while increasing their content upsell opportunities.
