Runtastic dominates the German paid mHealth app market.

The majority of successful mHealth apps in Germany help users to track their exercises and their weight loss. Android and iOS users might choose other apps but they still prefer the same mobile use case for mHealth apps.

The preference for diet and exercise also does not change according to the business model. 71% of the most downloaded free and 63% of the paid mHealth apps are exercise and diet apps.

Runtastic, an Austrian company, has managed to build up a self-referencing app eco-system that helps to promote their apps very efficiently. 20 of their apps showed up amongst the top 10 lists for iPhone, iPad and Android apps during the 3 month benchmarking period.

Runtastic’s dominance is so high that download numbers for paid apps (top 10) were even higher than download numbers for free apps.

This analysis is part of our new series of benchmarking reports started with the US mobile healthcare app market. The report analyses the app market performance of the most successful mHealth apps on the iOS and Android platform.

Find out more in our report “Germany Top 10 mHealth Apps Performance Benchmarking”.

As always, comments are very welcome.

Today’s most successful free Health & Fitness apps accumulated 5.5 Mio. downloads since their first appearance in the Apple App Store on average. There are significant performance gaps that highlight the importance of choosing the “right” platform, app category and device choice for mHealth publishers.

This analysis is part of our new series of benchmarking reports starting with the US mobile healthcare app market. The report analyses the app market performance of the most successful mHealth apps on the iOS and Android platform. Find out more in our report “US Top 10 mHealth Apps Performance Benchmarking”.

There are 3 main areas of performance gaps that impact the performance of a top mHealth app most.

1. mHealth app category performance gap: The Health & Fitness app category attracts more iPhone, iPad and Android users than the Medical app category. As a consequence the top selling apps in the Health & Fitness apps can expect to reach up to 11 times higher download numbers than in the Medical section for free apps and up to 7 times higher downloads for paid apps.
2. mHealth mobile operating system performance gap: Although Android became the no. 1 platform for free mHealth apps in terms of monthly downloads, there is still a big performance gap for paid mHealth apps. Successful paid mHealth iPhone apps still generate 5-6 times higher monthly download numbers on average than their counterparts on the Android platform.
3. mHealth device performance gap: Due to still higher penetration rates of smartphones compared to tablets, successful mHealth apps that are optimized for smartphones get 5 times (paid) and 2 times (free) more downloads than apps that are optimized for tablets.

As always, comments are very welcome.

Apart from the report “US Top 10 mHealth Apps Performance Benchmarking” we just published the 3rd edition of our comprehensive “Global Mobile Health Market Report 2013-2017” by research2guidance is a business guide for traditional healthcare companies, mHealth specialists as well as for mobile operators wishing to successfully engage into the new mHealth market.

The revenue generated with sensors connecting to an app will reach $5.6 Billion by 2017. The market will grow by 69% (CAGR) over the next 5 years. 61 Mio. sensors will be shipped to mHealth app users in 2017.

mHealth apps make more and more use of external sensors. Sensors can track a range of health metrics, such as blood pressure, heart rate, glucose level, medication compliance and more.  They connect with the corresponding app via Bluetooth, WiFi or USB. The app analysis, displays and shares the data that is being monitored by the sensors.

mHealth app based business models, which rely on sensors sales will play a major role in the mHealth market. Find more in our latest report:“Global Mobile Health Market Report 2013-2017”.

The revenue generated with sensors connecting to an app will reach $5.6 Billion by 2017. The market will grow by 69% (CAGR) over the next 5 years.

There are approximately 200 external sensors that connect to a smartphone app today. The majority of these sensors is priced between $20 and $ 200 and is usually charged as one-off-payment or included in a subscription model.

Today’s app-connecting sensors are more consumer products than medical products. With the boom of the smartphone app market, sensors which link to an app became fashionable products. They have got nothing to do with the grey and clumsy sensors that really looked like medical devices and that you would hestitate to show in public. Today’s app-related sensors are very designed just like the corresponding apps.

In 2017, more than 61 Mio. external sensors will be shipped to smartphone and tablet users.  The majority of sensors will track health parameters for sports and fitness purposes just as the existing hundreds of ANT+ sensors today.

The sensor business model will shift from proprietary solutions, which are only working with a single app to open systems, which allow connections to multiple apps (e.g HxM BT by Zephir, Withing).

The market today is dominated by small tech companies that have been first to enter the market in 2009 and 2010. With the growing market potential, big brands from sport like Nike or technology giants (e.g. Samsung) have entered the mHealth sensor market as well. First market exits (e.g. Zeo) indicate that the market will become tough for small tech companies that do not have the financial muscle to increase their customer base fast enough and to keep track with the innovation speed in the smartphone/app/sensor market.

As usual comments are highly welcome.

The “Global Mobile Health Market Report 2013-2017” by research2guidance is a business guide for traditional healthcare companies, mHealth specialists, as well as for mobile operators wishing to successfully engage into the new mHealth market.

While Apple’s market share of app downloads constantly fell from 81% in 2008 to 39% at the end of 2012, Android’s app downloads increased year over year reaching 42% at the end of 2012. Both platforms now combine 82% of all app downloads. Will this duopoly last for the next years or will the market see another major change in the market structure as witnessed 5 years ago when the dominance of Symbian started to fade away?

These findings are part of the free Whitepaper: Smartphone App Market 2013

The most likely scenario is that the duopoly will give way to a more heterogeneous mobile operating system landscape. There is evidence that already in 2013 the market will enter a new phase with more relevant mobile app platforms which would be the beginning of the end of the duopoly.

1. New platforms, new choice: Microsoft, BlackBerry, Firefox, Ubuntu or Jolla have come up with fresh and new app platforms which will challenge the two market leaders. Some have financial muscles others have cool new concepts and solutions. All seems to attract a lot of market hype indicating that the market got a bit bored with iOS and Android and are looking for something new.
2. Old problems of the computer/mobile device industry, old strategies: Today, 90% of all smartphones come with an iOS or Android operating system. Maybe mobile phones users can live with this uniformity but most of the smartphone device manufacturers can’t, if they don’t want to compete only by price.  As a consequence new and fresh operating systems will be loaded on smartphones especially from 2^nd tier device manufacturers like HTC, Huawai and ZTE to offer something different.

It is a matter of fact that this market shift would have an impact on the app initiatives companies have launched over the course of the last years. Every app developer and publisher will have to adjust their app development and distribution strategy to compete in a market with 5-7 relevant mobile operating systems. In essence app development and distribution will become more complex.

App development will become more complex

Compared to the world today, where most of the app publishers and developers are concentrating on iOS and Android, the need for adding at least Windows Phone and BlackBerry to the “served platform list” will increase over the next 2 years. If companies want to reach out to the community of early adopters they would even have to include new OS platforms like Ubuntu or Jolla to the list. Adding HTML5 makes 7 platforms to watch and/or maintain.  That is good news for the app development industry and multi-platform tool vendors (Note: End of Q2 2013, research2guidance will release the 3rd edition of the „Multi-Plattform App Development Solution Report“.  E-Mail us to get on the distribution list. ), but starts to become a real management task for companies trying to reach their customers with the help of mobile apps.

Managing the app store landscape will be key for the distribution success of an app

App stores will remain the main distribution channel for apps during the upcoming years. In addition to new OS platforms and their app stores, new app distribution platforms will emerge. They will specifically address e.g. business, health, adult and children app users needs and offer additional downloads and marketing opportunities for app publishers. The number of app stores increase month by month and it is not possible to track all of them, but it is a safe bet to say that there are more than 500 apps stores out there. App publishers don’t need to know all of them but they should be aware of the most relevant for their target groups as well as upcoming service providers that help to distribute an app on dozens and hundreds of app stores. Building and marketing an app is becoming increasingly complex and will demand a systematic fact based approach to handle market turbulences in the coming years.

Find more of the most current market analysis on the smartphone app market in our new update of “The Smartphone App Monitor Vol. 9”. We invite you to comment and tell us your thoughts on the future of the app market and its consequences for app developers and publishers.

mHealth services start to leverage apps to become commercially successful.

Although the potential benefits of mHealth solutions have been widely discussed for over a decade, until recently the market never emerged from the trial phase.  Mobile application developers have begun to enable the mHealth industry to successfully monetize their services. The market for mHealth services has now entered the commercialization phase and will reach $ 26 billion globally by 2017.

This is one of the findings of our 3rd “Global Mobile Health Market Report 2013-2017”  published in March 2013.

Finally there is evidence that the long-expected mobile revolution in healthcare is set to happen. Both healthcare providers and consumers are embracing smartphones as a means to improving healthcare.

Top mHealth publishers manage to generate more than 3 million free and 300.000 paid downloads in the USA on the iOS platform. The reach on other platforms and in other countries differ at lot but show also the increase of business potential for mHealth apps.

Not only are consumers taking advantage of smartphones to manage and improve their own health, but also healthcare profseeionals. A significant number (15%) of mHealth applications is primarily designed for healthcare professionals. These include CME (Continued Medical Education), remote monitoring and healthcare management applications.

Currently there are 97,000 mHealth applications in major app stores, 42% of them adhering to the paid business model.  With more and more traditional healthcare providers joining the mobile applications market, the business models will broaden to include healthcare services, sensor, advertising and drug sales revenues.

With the growing sophistication level of mHealth applications, only 9% of the total market revenue in the next 5 years will come from application download revenue. 84% of total mHealth application market revenue will come from related services and products such as sensors.

The “Global Mobile Health Market Report 2013-2017” by research2guidance is a business guide for traditional healthcare companies, mHealth specialists as well as for mobile operators wishing to successfully engage into the new mHealth market.

As usual comments are highly welcome.

In 2012, the majority of mobile shops made less than 5% of their total e-commerce revenue via the mobile channel. This means that online stores which use a mobile app can expect to earn on average as much as 5% of their e-commerce revenue through the use of m-commerce. The share of companies that make more than 25% with their mobile channel is almost 19%.

Mobile applications or web pages are no longer just for playing Angry Birds or checking the weather; they are also rapidly becoming shopping companions. Considering the fact that mobile devices are the one thing people never leave at home, along with their keys and wallets, it is no surprise that companies are trying to get onto this device to sell their products But to what extent and how do they do it? What is the real status of m-commerce business today, and how does it change in the upcoming years?

These and many more questions are the focus of our Global M-Commerce Status Check Report conducted in Q3 2012 with more than 600 m-commerce companies.

On the one hand companies already make money with m-commerce today. On the other hand, it represents only a fraction of their e-sales. Only a few companies generate a significant share (> 25%) of their total e-commerce on the mobile channel. The majority is making less than 5%.

The projection of what companies can expect from their mobile shops is cause for  moderate optimism. The share of companies which expect to generate more than 25% of their total e-commerce revenue will increase by 10 percent points to 27% compared to today’s figures. Almost 15% expect m-commerce to be responsible for more than 50% of e-commerce revenue in the coming 5 years.

The spread between mobile shops with a high and a low impact on total e-commerce sales is wide. The levers that make a mobile shop successful are manifold. Most of the mobile shops view social network integration, seamless payment and product reviews as the key functionality.

Successful m-commerce apps are downloaded more than 2 million times, but the long tale with apps that make only a few thousands downloads is indeed very long.

Smartphones and tablets are the most targeted mobile devices, but other mobile device like e-readers and mobile game consoles are also being focused on.

Android and Apple are the primary operating systems for m-commerce today, but the relevance of other platforms like WP7 or mobile web is increasing.

Not surprisingly, virtual goods are the most common products sold through m-commerce solutions, but a wide spread of mobile shops also offer other product categories with different success.

The “m-commerce status check 2012” provides a detailed view on how m-commerce leaders and followers use the mobile channel to sell their products and services today and what their plans are for the future.

For more information please look at the detailed description and preview of the report.

The number of new apps in stores exceeds the demand side. This lowers the revenue and may, in effect, lead to a similar development as on the internet where paid content is not anymore a profitable business model.

The market for paid application downloads has reached US$ 8 billion in 2012 in the top 5 app platforms. This represents an increase of 27% compared to 2011 figures (see chart below).

In the meantime, average revenue for paid applications has decreased from US$ 26,720 in 2011 to US$ 19,560 in 2012.

Despite the global slowdown of the economy the demand for paid mobile applications is growing at an impressive speed. The main driver is still the growing number of smartphone users with pre-installed app stores. The majority of paid downloads are being generated by 5 app stores: Apple App Store, Google Play, BlackBerry App World, Nokia Ovi Store and Windows Phone Store.

These finding are part of our new report “Smartphone Application Market Monitor” 8^th edition.

This growing demand in turn gives rise to a surge in applications developed. Owing to this, there are now so many applications available that supply even exceeds demand. As a result, the average revenue of paid applications generated in 2012 is 27% lower than in 2011. Such a decrease is in line with previous years and could eventually lead to a development where paid apps are no longer profitable. This might lead to a similar situation as the internet one where, in general, paid content has proved to be not anymore a lucrative business model.

There are significant differences in the average revenue earned per application between the top 5 app stores. The trend nevertheless remains the same for all platforms.

As a consequence more and more application publishers build their applications around other revenue models, which include:

1. in-app advertisements, e.g. banners

2. in-app purchases, e.g. allowing the user to reach a new level in a game

3. mCommerce, e.g. selling pizza via app

4. bundles with hardware or services, e.g. a free application bundled to a priced sensor to track health parameters

5. efficiency gains for internal and external processes, e.g. a service technician app

6. cost reduction, e.g. personal health record app, which allows patients and doctors to record medical treatments in order to prevent double-examination costs

The shift in revenue models also means that mobile applications will resemble more and more traditional applications that we know from the enterprise application market with common business models.

For more information, please have a look at the 8^th edition of the “Smartphone Application Market Monitor”.

The report comes in 3 versions:

PDF Report and PPT File (bundle of both files: PDF and PPT) 

PDF Report (52 Pages, explanatory text) 

PPT File (49 Pages, drag-and-drop slides into your presentations) 

We would like to know which business model, in your opinion, will become the dominant model for the mobile application market. Please comment.

The market for mobile applications has become a multi Euro business. In 2012 publishers in the Top 5 European countries will have generated  1.68 bn. Euros with paid application downloads, in-app purchasing and in-app advertising. The growth rate during the initial years is above 140 %.

Since 2008 (the initial full year of the new application eco system) the market has changed from a niche „gaming and entertainment“ channel for players on-the-move to an „app“ hype with more than  2 mio. applications published. The hype is similar to the „www.“ hype in the early 2000s, but 5-7 times faster.

The findings are part of our new report „Top 5 EU App Market Monitor“.

The European application market represents approximetaly 20% of the global market. The biggest European app markets are:  UK, Germany, Italy, Spain und France. They account for 15% of the global app market.

Among those Top 5 EU countries, there are significant differences in size and structure of the domestic markets. This directly impacts the platform and business model decisions every publisher must make before setting up an app project.

To learn more about the European app market, please have a look at the latest App Market Monitor Report „Top 5 EU App Market Monitor“. The reports provides a detailed overview in 80 pages on the current status of the domestic app markets between 2008 and 2013.

iOS is the dominant paid download platform in Germany. Top 10 iPhone paid app publishers generate 140.000 downloads on average per month whereas Android top 10 publishers only reach 18.000 downloads per month. iOS paid app publishers therefore can rely on different business models because they can expect 8 times more downloads than their Android counterparts.

The overall growth of the German app market is one of the highest in Europe. The German App Market increased by 183% (CAGR) over the last 4 years. The app user base which includes smartphone, tablet and iPod Touch users increased 203% (CAGR) in the same period.

The Germany App Market Monitor is the fifth of a series of reports about the main EU app markets.

For more information on the German app market, please see our latest country app market monitor report: Germany App Market Monitor.

We will release more country reports in the following weeks (see below).

- App Market Monitor: United Kingdom

- App Market Monitor: France

- App Market Monitor: Spain

- App Market Monitor: Italy

- App Market Monitor: Germany

- Country Reports Package

The prerequisites of the Indian market to become one of the leading app markets are improving rapidly. Today’s leading smartphone app markets, the USA and the top 5 Western EU countries, will lose their dominant positions.
The new report on the Smartphone App Market provides details on business opportunities for the Indian market.

There are various factors that have an impact on the size of the app business in a country. The four main drivers for this development are:

Dynamic of the overall economic wealth: Over the past two decades India has had an annual average GDP growth rate of 5.8%, making the country one of the top emerging economies today. Furthermore, India’s GDP purchasing power parity (PPP) is ranked 3^rd in the world by the most important institutions (e.g. the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the CIA World Factbook). The overall economic growth will drive the demand for apps that address customers with the help of the mobile channels.

Increase of average income: Today the monthly average salary in India amounts to only US$ 295, accounting for only 10% of the monthly average salary in both the US and Germany and roughly 50% of the average Chinese monthly salary. Additionally, according to the Human Development Index (HDI), 41.6% of the Indian population lives below US$ 1.25 PPP per day. Projected growth rates of income are well above Western countries in the next few years. More and more employees will be able to afford a smartphone and thus drive India’s current smartphone share to 9% overtaking Western countries’ figures.

High expected number of smartphone shipments: India is currently ranked 7^th in the world in terms of smartphone shipments, with a global market share of 2.9%. However, by 2016, the Indian market will become the third largest market for smartphone shipments (surpassing Brazil and the UK in the ranking) and will have an accompanying market share of 9.3%. This means that almost every tenth smartphone in the world will be shipped to the Indian market.

Active app developer community: India has one of the largest app developer communities that concentrate on offshore development today. With the growth of the domestic app market (user base and download number), more and more individuals will concentrate on developing apps for the Indian market creating more apps and download opportunities.

Those drivers will help to make India one of the leading app markets worldwide in only three years, providing business opportunities not only for domestic players.

There is more information on the Indian app market in the latest Smartphone App Market Monitor, Vol.7. The report is available in the following formats:

PDF Report (64 Pages, explanatory text)

PPT File (66 Pages, drag-and-drop slides into your presentations)

PDF Report and PPT File (bundle)