We’ve been saying it for months: in a work-from-home world, good mobile technology is a must for companies of all shapes and sizes. (Just last week, we explained why it’s essential these days to ensure that your mobile tech is up to par.)
The long and the short of our argument is as follows: as the pandemic has forced companies to allow work to be done remotely, employees have become more dependent than ever on their mobile devices to do work every day. Thus, the companies who best embrace technology–specifically mobile apps that increase productivity–the better-prepared they’ll be to ride this out for the long haul.
We’ve found that hypothesis to be true over the last year or so. Our clients who have most strongly embraced mobile technology, and whose mobility strategies are the most sophisticated, have also done the best job “weathering the storm,” so to speak.
In light of all this, a new industry report that looks at the growth of mobile business and productivity apps really puts into perspective just how much growth there has been in this area.
According to data reported by ComputerWeekly, “consumers across the world installed business and productivity apps 7.1 billion times in 2020 – up 35% from 2019.” The surge in downloads began in mid-March of last year, right about when the pandemic began most significantly impacting us in the United States. After the initial surge, app downloads remained high throughout the rest of the year, suggesting that more and more people leaned into productivity apps as the year went on.
Apps like WhatsApp, Word, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams were particularly popular, topping charts that measure app downloads after years of floating in the background. Zoom, ComputerWeekly reports, hosted 10M video participants per day in January of last year, and shot up to 200M participants per day in March. By now, these productivity apps–Teams, Zoom, Slack, etc.–are household names, and for good reason. Apps like these help employees remain productive in their work whether they’re in the office or in the basement in their PJs.
There are many things one could take away from this data about the extraordinary growth of productivity apps last year, but the one we keep going back to is that your business needs to have the right tools in place to capitalize on current trends for remote work. For example, our Enterprise App Store solution allows you to curate the exact apps your employees need, whether from public App Stores or developed internally, and gives you stronger control over security, users, and other management features a public App Store. Having more control leaves you even better prepared for an uncertain future of work.
Want to talk more about how you can take advantage of trends in mobile work, and business and productivity apps? Contact us today. We’d love to hear from you.
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