Login
In 2011, Gartner came up with a prediction that by 2014 at least 25% of enterprise applications would be built by citizen developers. For the study, Gartner defined citizen developer as an end user (employee or business stake holder) who builds applications for consumption by themselves and other fellow end users using company sanctioned resources.
There are two reasons why there is a growing number of citizen developers in the corporate space. The first reason is promotion related incentives. Building your own app demonstrates leadership and problem solving which are major factors in deciding employee promotions.
Another reason for the rise in citizen development is the growth of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) at the workplace. With more than 62% of businesses now estimated to have BYOD policies at work, there is a growing defragmentation of the software applications that employees use at work. This has in turn led to the rise in the practice called BYOA (Bring Your Own Apps). When end users do not find satisfactory applications that get the job done on their platform, they find a way to make one themselves.
With practices such as teleworking, BYOD and freelance contracting on the rise, businesses can no longer afford to purchase one set of software licenses that cater to the requirements of all their employees. By incentivizing citizen development, they can bring about more efficient work processes that not only save crucial business budgets but can also serve to bring greater employee participation in building the software infrastructure at the workplace.
Mobile App Store Forecasts
– Gartner predicts that by 2016, there will be 310B downloads with an estimated value of $74B in revenue from app stores. Gartner has also predicted that by 2017, 25% of all enterprises will have an app store. This includes both new application purchases and recurring revenues form subscription pricing models. Source: Gartner Market Trends: Mobile App Stores, Worldwide, 2012.
– 90% of global mobile app store downloads in 2013 are forecast to be free, increasing to 93% in 2017. 73.2B free downloads will occur in 2013, increasing to 287.9B by 2017. Paid-for downloads will increase from 8.1B in 2013 to 21.6B in 2017. Source: Gartner Market Trends: Mobile App Stores, Worldwide, 2012.
– In-app purchase will drive 41% of the store revenue in 2016. While the market is moving toward free and low-priced mobile business apps, in-app purchase will increase in both the number of downloads and in the contribution to the store revenue. As a result, we see a shift in user spending from upfront purchases to in-app purchases. Source: Gartner Report Market Trends: Mobile App Stores, Worldwide, 2012.
– 99% of the paid-for app store downloads cost less than $3 each. Similar to free mobile business apps, lower-priced mobile business apps will drive the majority of the downloads. We estimate that mobile business apps between $0.99 and $2.99 will account for 87.5% of the paid-for downloads in 2012, up from 86.8% in 2011. That percentage will further increase to 96% by 2016. Source: Gartner Report Market Trends: Mobile App Stores, Worldwide, 2012.
– Global mobile app store revenue is projected to reach $24.5B in 2013, increasing to $74B in 2017. Paid-in downloads (69%); in-app purchase (17.3%) and advertising (13.7%) are the three revenue sources in 2013. In 2017, revenue shifts significantly to paid-for downloads contributing 45.2% of revenue, in-app purchases, 40.9% and advertising, 13.9%. Source: Gartner Report Market Trends: Mobile App Stores, Worldwide, 2012.
