The success story of the apps has only just begun
Smart utilities for weather forecasting, news, gaming or navigation are downloaded and used en masse by consumers on smartphones and tablets. In the past two years, the app economy has created a market whose sales for 2012 are estimated at four billion US dollars. The use of business apps with integration into company applications and business processes, on the other hand, is still in its infancy. The Munich Circle has now shown that small software programs can also be of decisive importance for mobile business processes in many user sectors and thus for Germany as an industrial location
At the invitation of the Munich Circle, around 200 experts from business, politics and science discussed future prospects for the development, marketing and use of so-called apps. Apps are software programs that can be run on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets.
“Successful apps are usually reduced to essential functions and are extremely intuitive and quick to use. They are also not limited to local data in the device,” said Prof. Claudia Linnhoff-Popien from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. A large and rapidly increasing spread of mobile apps can currently be observed, especially among consumers, be it for entertainment, communication or as a help for almost every situation in life. According to a study by the analyst firm Gartner, eight billion apps were downloaded in 2010, but the real boom is still to come: by the end of 2014, 185 billion app downloads are expected. In addition to many free apps, there are now hundreds of thousands of paid apps for which users spend an average of 3,50 euros. "Right from the start, the app economy has solved a problem that the web economy has been carrying around for years: the enforcement of paid content," said Prof. Michael Dowling from the Chair for Innovation and Technology Management at the University of Regensburg.
However, the spread of apps used in the business world is still lagging behind. In particular, business processes with short interactions, such as a travel authorization or minor changes in documents, would be significantly accelerated if they were used. Isolated solutions on special hardware for service technicians or parcel couriers have existed for years. But it is still a long time before it spread to other employees in companies, who are also increasingly mobile. The integration of apps into the operational core systems with customer, employee or production data is only taking place hesitantly. Mobile business processes, intelligent software and communication elements in industries such as mechanical engineering, automotive or plant construction are of increasing importance.
Established companies in particular usually make their investment decisions on the basis of clear quantifications of market potential and estimates of returns. "In the case of disruptive innovations, such as those of the app economy, they often act very cautiously at first, almost paralyzed," remarked Prof. Arnold Picot, CEO of the Munich Circle. "Even the classic media industry is so cautious with its investments in the app economy that innovative start-ups keep taking the butter off its bread." So it is not surprising that successful, already existing business apps are developed and distributed by independent - and mostly small - software houses. The applications here range from the logbook application to Word and Excel editors to the app for scanning documents. “However, it can be assumed that there are still major growth areas in all industries. Social media, location-based services and augmented reality are just a few functions that will influence, change or even replace industrial processes in the future,” summarized Prof. Nikolaus Mohr, Managing Director of Accenture GmbH.
About the Munich Circle:
The Munich Circle is a non-profit, supranational association for communication research. At the interface of politics, science, business and media, he deals with questions of technology, society, economy and regulation in the field of
information and communication technologies and the media. It accompanies and promotes the development of the information society in a responsible manner and contributes constructively to improving the general conditions through scientifically qualified contributions and factual dialogue. www.muenchner-kreis.de
Source: Munich [ Munich Circle ]
