Coronavirus has well and truly taken the world by storm, and it seems that things are unlikely to go back to normal for several weeks or even months. Accompanying these extraordinary changes has been a significant shift in people’s working lives and behaviors.
Some of these shifts have resulted in a decrease in economic activity, with certain areas of the mobile app economy being negatively hit. This is particularly apparent for service-based apps that rely on out-of-home activity, such as Travel and Sports betting apps and many more examples.
The good news in all of this, however, is that, despite the global economic downturn, there could actually be some excellent opportunities for many companies.
These opportunities will benefit many mobile app providers who can make the most of the surging mobile use and subsequently increased demand for certain apps.
While some of the apps seeing increased demand are getting a lot of media attention – for example conferencing and messaging apps like Slack and Teams – others that may be less obvious are also experiencing rapid rises in popularity that are being overlooked.
In this article, we’ll break down some specific examples across three sub-categories of mobile utilities apps that are currently booming:
- E-signature apps
- Scanning and sending apps
- Secondary phone line apps
With these breakdowns, we aim to illustrate the trends in downloads and revenue generation, highlighting some of the new ways of working for businesses and individuals everywhere. Mobbo’s advanced analyses and statistical approach to mobile app activity provide powerful and highly specific insights into the mobile marketplace, helping you to develop a data-driven perspective to drive your ongoing strategy and growth..
E-Signature Apps
Unsurprisingly, digital signatures, otherwise known as e-signatures, have surged in popularity in recent weeks. This is reflected in the usage of some of the top e-signature apps.
SignEasy, one of the most popular e-signature providers globally, is a great example of this, having experienced an enormous increase in downloads since mid-March. SignEasy gives users the ability to digitally sign and send a variety of document types, making it useful for almost any business that requires paperwork.
The number of worldwide downloads on Android devices alone has risen from under 5,000 per day in the first two weeks of March, to a high of around 60,000 by the end of the month.
This rapid upward trend coincides perfectly with the acceleration of worldwide measures such as lock downs and stay-at-home advice from governments. As greater numbers of people work from home, either due to sickness or their employers shifting to remote work, it becomes difficult for people to sign the necessary documents in person. However, these documents still need to be signed, so many workers seem to have turned to mobile e-signature providers to bridge the gap.
A similar trend can be followed for the iOS version of SignEasy, with downloads increasing around six-fold between the start and end of March.
It seems likely that these kinds of figures will continue for the foreseeable future as more and more businesses adapt to the new working environments imposed by the coordinated coronavirus response.
Scanning and Sending Apps
Another fundamental part of business administration is the scanning and sending of documents. Apps with this sort of functionality go hand-in-hand with signing apps, and some even have integrated digital signing features themselves.
In-line with the e-signature app trends, some of the top scanning and sending apps have also seen a huge increase in demand in recent weeks.
This graph demonstrates that downloads for FAX App, a mobile platform enabling users to send faxes directly from their phones, has experienced a surge in demand in-line with the virus’ spread. Between the first and last weeks of March, the Android downloads of the app increased at about 400%.
It will be interesting to see if this trend will continue after the world releases from quarantine.
After users will adopt a simple solutions for fax machines, they may not go back…
Scanning apps have also experienced a marked increase in demand, illustrated well by the downloads of Scanner App for Me, a digital scanning app.The usefulness of these apps is obvious in the unusual situation many businesses find themselves in. Without access to office space and the associated equipment, including scanners, fax machines, photocopiers, and more, people are having to find alternative ways of getting their work done. The apps featured here are just two examples of the myriad ways people are utilizing modern technology to work around the obstacles presented by the coronavirus.
Secondary Phone Line Apps
When you can’t go to the office and don’t have access to your usual business phone line, how do you take business calls? Well, one easy option is to use a secondary phone line app. These apps essentially turn your mobile phone into two separate lines, allowing you to use one for business while maintaining your usual personal line.
This example of the SmartLine Second Phone Number app for Android illustrates the demand increase well. Downloads increased from fewer than 1,000 per day to more than 5,000 per day over the course of March. The spikes in demand from Monday to Friday can also be clearly seen, showing that the app is being used in a professional context as opposed to personal.
A similar trend can be seen in the download volumes of Sideline, another secondary phone line app. Here, daily downloads are shown to have more than doubled across March, with the same peaks and troughs aligning with the working week.
For many people, telephone calls are still an absolutely crucial part of every working day, and these apps offer a perfect solution to the problem of not having a physical business line. In addition, the current situation is temporary, so these apps help people and organizations bypass the need to invest in extra equipment that would become redundant in a few weeks or months.
The Changing Face of Business
All of the examples here act to demonstrate the rapid and widespread adaptation of businesses across the world to the new and unprecedented working environments created by the coronavirus.
Organizations and individuals across the globe are choosing to leverage the power of modern technology – in this case, innovative mobile apps – to fill the gaps left by the necessity of working from home.
Home office apps, in general, emerging as an area of significant growth, with the potential to grow even more as the quarantine continues. We are yet to see what other ideas app developers have in store for us in this niche, so it is certainly a space to watch.
If you’d like to access actionable insights into the mobile space, including into the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic, then Mobbo can help.
Mobbo utilizes the latest mobile statistics to compile easily digestible reports and insights into the world of mobile apps. Learn how to capitalize on emerging trends, foresee changes in the market, and gain insight into the strategies used by the most successful apps to maximize your returns in one of the fastest-growing mediums in the world.