Good Technology: Custom Apps Rise By 731 Percent

More and more businesses are designing and launching their own custom apps than ever before, according to an industry report.

Research from mobility group Good Technology found that there had been a 731 percent rise in custom-built app activations over the past 12 months as companies flock to create a fully developed mobile strategy.

The company saw a 107 percent rise in custom app activations using its Secure Mobility platform over the past quarter, highlighting how keen enterprises are to ensure they stay competitive in an increasingly mobile-focused marketplace.

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These rises led custom business apps to become the most common seen on Good’s platform, nudging ahead of third-party apps commonly used in document-based workflows, concerning document editing and document access. Security-focused apps followed behind, with online browsing and instant messaging rounding out the top five app categories.

The study also showed that iOS had managed to reverse a series of recent declines thanks in part to the release of iOS 8. Overall, iOS held a 69 percent share, with Android in second place with a 29 percent share of net device activations.

“The rapid rise in custom app development illustrates that organisations are seeing mobility as a real opportunity for competitive advantage and security as a critical requirement in enabling trusted mobility,” said Christy Wyatt, chairman and CEO at Good Technology.

“We continue to see the rapid growth of both internally developed and commercial applications in the Good Dynamics ecosystem, the largest secure mobility ecosystem available across operating systems.”

With this rise in the number of apps available also comes a need for businesses to ensure their offerings remain useful for customers. A recent study by Ofcom found that the average UK smartphone user has 23 apps downloaded on their device, but only ten of these are used regularly. This is bad news for app developers, compounded by the fact that word-of-mouth recommendations were found to be the most effective driver of downloads, especially compared to advertising.

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