According to Applied Market Research, by 2026, the mobile apps market globally will be $407.31 billion.

The bigger question, however is, should all businesses and brands in all industries join the bandwagon and have an app made for them? Are there industries that need to get started with their app journeys more than others? And if so? What opportunities should they be looking at?

In this article, we explore the industries that need mobile apps.

Manufacturing

Industry 4.0 is here, and at its core is mobile. Technologies like IoT and smart factories generate copious amounts of data that needs to be accessed by various teams and individuals in a company for better tracking of inventory, decision making and collaboration.

Here are some use cases for mobile apps in the manufacturing industry:

managing assets,
better collaboration,
better resource allocation,
reducing the need for paper based systems,
tracking and increasing employee productivity,
minimizing data entry errors and ensuring data accuracy,
real time data collection, aggregation and access by the relevant teams in the organization, and
providing guidance where the apps act as a virtual assistant to make suggestions, provide insights, and bring attention to vital issues.

Hospitality/Food/Travel

Booking.com’s survey of travel trends in 2020 provides insights into the potential of mobile apps in the hospitality/travel/food industries. There is an overarching theme of uniqueness, value, and deeper, personalized experiences.

Here are some insights from the survey that brands in the hospitality/food/travel industry can focus on when thinking about the kind of apps that they can build:

48% would use an app that allows for pre-planning.
58% would pay more for pet-friendly accommodation.
64% want to eat locally sourced produce while on vacation.
57% want travel options that they can explore after retirement.
67% want destinations where all the activities and sites are near each other.
59% want to help reduce over-tourism (where too many tourists visit a destination, sometimes resulting in conflicts with the locals).
47% would go for destinations that would help have a lesser negative impact on the environment if the options are similar to their original destination.
61% want an app that would recommend destinations that impact local communities positively.
59% want ‘wildcard’ and surprise options to introduce them to ‘a whole new world of experiences’.
About half (49%) of the surveyed travelers want an app that allows for exploration and booking of activities in real time during travel.
About half of the travelers would opt for slower and more unique transportation options which have lesser environmental impact.
66% would go for longer routes in order to experience not only the destination, but the journey itself.

The use cases therefore would be apps that:

Can allow users to pre-plan.
Curate lesser-known destinations.
Recommend ‘retirement-travel’ options.
Can recommend restaurants with local cuisines.
Recommend pet-friendly accommodation options.
Curate more environmentally friendly destinations.
Allow for real time booking and exploration as users travel.
Curate destinations with positive impacts on local communities.
Can recommend unique, slower and more environmentally friendly transportation options.
Can recommend destinations that save travel time, for example, by showing sites and activities that are within the same locale.
Can recommend astounding options – this could go beyond destinations. Well, it’s time to explore what might be exciting to your consumers.

Education

As we can see from the above image, the top education apps are diverse – they belong to different categories (Math, Languages, and Games, among others) and are fit for learners at every level of learning.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to massive demand for learning apps too, with restricted movements. According to Statista, In the US, there was a 1087% increase in app downloads in the Education category.

The growth of eLearning will continue post Covid, as the world settles into the new normal, according to Ryan Kootz, Rosenblatt Securities’ Senior Research Analyst.

Better still, eLearning has also seen significant growth within corporate culture. This infographic showing top 20 eLearning statistics for 2019 by the eLearning Industry says it all:

A 218% increase in revenue per employee
$30 dollars worth in productivity

If the above stats are anything to go by, then mobile apps are much needed in the education sector, by organizations, schools and businesses.

Healthcare

A National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) survey that explored the attitudes that physicians have towards the adoption of mHealth – mobile health, revealed that data collected from health apps and wearables was useful in a number of ways:

in conducting research,
in the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, and
in the tracking of medical equipment.

However, for medical practitioners to use the above-mentioned data, there was a need to:

Educate physicians on the available apps.
Prove the accuracy and precision of the collected biometrics.
Involve medical practitioners in the development and/or reviewing of apps.
Ensure strict regulation with regards to how the data collected is stored, used, and shared.
Ensure efficient integration of the collected data into the existing Electronic Medical Records (EMRs).

Among other requirements.

The above-mentioned demands point to what needs to be addressed in mHealth. Taking all the above considerations into account would result in the building of apps that would not only solve the particular challenges in healthcare, but that the users would be confident to use and recommend.

In conclusion

We have explored 4 industries (manufacturing, hospitality, education and healthcare) that need mobile apps even more than ever before, and identified the specific opportunities that exist thereof, based on data.

The best way forward is to use this information as a guide, in order to identify opportunities that you can seize and benefit from by leveraging mobile app technologies.

Are you in the above industries or even others we haven't talked about and are looking to have an app built for your brand? 
Contact us today for a customized solution.

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