Saturday, March 29, 2014

Bridging the G(APPS)

Mobile applications are becoming our future.  With Snapchat, Whatsapp, and Instagram selling for billions of dollars, app designers are starting to see the real values of mobile apps.

What are the benefits of mobile apps? Well, essentially, they take everything we need to do on the internet and make it available on an offline platform.  You just need phone service, and you can wire money to your parents in a different country. You can share pictures and videos instantly with your friend in South America from the convenience of reaching in your pocket.

Whatsapp allows users to communicate with friends anywhere without having to pay expensive cell phone charges.  Facebook recently bought Whatsapp for 19 billion dollars!  I think this was a very smart move considering that Whatsapp was gaining new users faster than people were joining Facebook.  Companies like Facebook are now realizing that everything is moving to a mobile platform, and in order to stay competitive, they have to join in.  Also, you may think that there is an app for everything, but the market for new apps is huge:


According to Forrester Research, innovation in the world of mobile apps is increasing massively. It is expected to be a $38 billion market by 2015. Although we’ve been lead to believe there’s app for almost everything, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Business opportunities associated with apps are just at an infancy. From one end of the spectrum with hyper-personalized, hyper-local and hyper-social apps right through to the enterprise market which alone is well on the way to spending $17 billion deploying apps, the overall market and number of use-cases are booming. Today’s smartphones literally are a blank slate, and we haven’t even begun to see what can be achieved.
 



There you have it folks. It is crazy that an industry that was nonexistent 10 years ago could get so huge. 
Bridging the world’s gap, one app at time.

Trojan Spotlight:
USC’s own students Sidhant Gandhi and Johnny De La Cruz have launched their new app on the Apple Store called Hypetrax.  The app is used for sharing music instantly with friends as well as a platform for artists to showcase their own music.  They have reached the Marshall Venture Seed Competition semi finals in hopes to win a $25,000 cash prize from investors.  You can read their story here via Neon Tommy.

Hypetrax.com
http://embience.com/why-mobile/apps
http://mobilestatistics.com/mobile-statistics/

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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 31, 2014 at 11:17 AM

    With so many apps already out there, I did not realize there was so much expected growth left in the app market, but I think that is amazing! It makes me excited to think about all the possibilities that this platform can offer that I cannot even imagine right now.

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  2. AnonymousApril 2, 2014 at 4:22 PM

    Out of curiosity, Do you think there's anything prohibiting from our computing platforms to transform into entirely mobile platforms? I'm thinking essentially of a world like that portrayed in Spike Jonze's Her, where a mobile device is essentially the singular platform by which we interact in the digital world.

    You cite that there's eventually going to be an app for everything, and although I don't disagree, I'm really not sure how a future mobile world will work out. Anecdotally, I already use my phone for more than my computer, leaving my laptop for casual web-browsing, media editing, and writing.

    I'm wondering if it would be possible for eventually one device using syncing/cloud tech to bridge all gaps between devices, leaving devices less for storage and more just for interaction. (Essence of Her)

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  3. UnknownApril 3, 2014 at 7:27 PM

    It is quite fascinating what’s happening with technological world as we speak. So much growing and advancing technology is affecting everything around us as well as us. I love my apps very much. They make my life easier, faster and more convenient. I can get from point A to a point B without any problems, besides ones cause by traffic. I can order, return or sell my books just using apps on my phone. My school and work related emails go in and out of my phone non-stop everyday. WhatsApp, Skype, Viber, Telegram allows me to stay in touch with my family and friends all around the world and my constantly travelling boyfriend for $0!!!! I remember just about 7 or 8 years ago my family was spending hundreds of dollars to call my sister hear in US just to be able to talk to her for about 30-40 min, maybe twice a month. And now I can spend hours talking to my grandparents and already married girlfriends back in Uzbekistan and Russia, send dozens of pictures from my trips and receive hundreds of pictures of their babies and my grandmother’s blooming garden.

    However, I am a little scared that our world will soon become something like above mentioned movie Her or like my favorite movie The Fifth Element. And then what? Are we going to start dating our computer software? Or make a baked chicken in the microwave just by dropping some unknown liquid on a plate? Weird.

    I’m for progress and technological advancements but only for moderate and rational ones. Also I am for technology that will not make us their slaves or all over sudden will cheat on us. :)

    It's all very complicated. But so exciting!

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  4. UnknownApril 4, 2014 at 6:17 PM

    Not being the most knowledgeable person on mobile or app technology I was blown away by how much growth there is left in this market. From my perspective it seemed like the app market had peaked and whatever new ones to come out were simply going to fill some vague niche market. But after reading your post I am thinking differently. The recent acquisitions by Facebook seem to be supporting the fact that investors and companies see the potential here. I also read the article you posted about the two USC students and their app idea and I think that is awesome. I wish them the best of luck, but it seems like with the market the way it is, they wont need too much if they have a great idea.

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