The market for connected devices is thriving, and further blurring the line between our physical and digital worlds. As wearables such as smartwatches, health and activity trackers collect contextual data about our behaviour and preferences, our lives are becoming more connected.
According to Gartner, 26 billion connected devices will be in use globally by 2020 whilst another study from Strategy Analytics shows traditional connected devices like PCs, smartphones and tablets now account for less than a third of all connected devices in use. Most devices have a supporting mobile app, so we decided to analyse which of those apps are making waves in the industry, in hope of discovering which devices might shape the world in the years to come.
In our August spotlight report, we featured six emerging categories of mobile apps within the connected devices landscape: Car, Health & Fitness, Home, Media, Productivity and Watch.
Out of this group, we found that apps listed in the Media and Productivity categories were the most popular and led the download chart in August 2014. The Media category, as the largest in the connected devices group, had five apps feature in August’s top 10 download chart and accounted for roughly 40% of downloads. Google’s popular dongle Chromecast hit the spotlight by ranking #1 in overall downloads, followed by DIRECTV, GoPro, AT&T U-verse and DISH Anywhere.
Productivity apps, primarily consisting of credit card reader and printer apps, was the next most popular category, with about 30% of downloads and four apps in the overall top 10. However, we expect this to grow as more countries adopt Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, which allows contactless payments. It will also be interesting to see the effect of the arrival of Apple Pay as an alternative to card readers.
Health & Fitness was the third most popular app category, with FitBit topping August’s download charts. But despite their rapid growth, Health & Fitness connected devices face the challenge of maintaining long-term engagement. In particular, wearables will have to continue improving the customer experience to sustain interest and long-term utility.
Another interesting finding from the research is that although connected cars, homes and smartwatches have received a lot of buzz in the media, app downloads are still relatively low. Combined, the top apps in these subcategories accounted for only 15% of total downloads, which means they are still nascent with significant room for growth.
So, what’s next for connected devices?
We expect growth in this market to continue to be reflected in the online app stores. More sophisticated devices will emerge, inspired by the hyper-granular data being created by the ones already in existence. While our report focuses on August’s six largest app categories within connected devices, we fully expect to see new sectors emerge as technologies advance and consumer adoption increases.
Yet, as we look to the future of connected devices and the overarching architecture of the Internet of Things, an intriguing questions remains: What will be the central hub that will inter-connect and control all of these devices? The hub, whether it takes the form of a security system, thermostat or mobile phone, will be critical for the Internet of Things to reach its full potential.
By Olivier Bernard, GM EMEA at App Annie.
PrivSec Conferences will bring together leading speakers and experts from privacy and security to deliver compelling content via solo presentations, panel discussions, debates, roundtables and workshops.
For more information on upcoming events, visit the website.
comments powered by Disqus