Smartphones have literally changed the way humans live today in the world. In years long so far, it has gained importance equivalent to breathing. Moving out without carrying mobile phones is something impossible today.

The initial use of mobiles was to make simple phone calls, but now the meaning of using mobile has revolutionized. It not only servers as a gadget to manage call history and store contact numbers, but a major part of it serves as a camera, maps, guidebooks, banks, personal assistants, and entertainment centers.

Another significance of smartphones is to help track health-fitness. Wearable gadgets connected with smartphones help to monitor heart rate, distance walked, steps covered, and more.

But what actually helps to sum the information from different sources and present it in a unanimous form?

The answer to it is applications.

With the evolving technology, cell phones have turned smarter. Smartphones make it possible to reach every corner of the world like never before. Thanks for the evolution in apps!

The root of national download day

The national download day, as such, does not hold any significant history. It is due to some remarkable achievements that mark the start of this day.

In 1994, IBM was the first company to launch its first smartphone. This smartphone included a contact list, calendar, world clock, and calculator, which were basically features and not apps. There were no App stores in those times like today.

Working with it, different manufacturers started creating their smartphones that aided IBM’s idea of apps. Blackberry was amongst the next to initiate the expansion of apps that came up with arcade games, emails, a to-do list, and more.

Despite all of it, apps did not gain much attention until the first iPhone was introduced in June 2007. Apple introduced the App Store in the following years that featured almost 500 mobile apps. The launch of the App Store marked an outstanding 10 million app downloads in three days. It’s been ten years that the App Store has been launched and includes almost 2.1 million apps.

In 2009, Apple even became keener about its App Store by popularizing the phrase, “There’s an app for that,” while the word ‘app’ turned out to be “Word of the Year” in 2010.

Then entered Google in August 2008 after creating its Android market, which was later renamed as Google Play Store in 2012. In 2018, Google Play Store turned out to be a successful alternative to the App Store after earning USD 24.8 billion.

No doubt, apps have become an intrinsic part of day-to-day life. Maximum time of the day is spent on mobile phones, ultimately leading to an increase in app usage. With time as technology advances, so will the apps.

Practices to be conducted on this day

According to experts, 28 December was chosen to be celebrated as a national download day as it marks the winter holidays. It’s the festival time of the year with Christmas around; people tend to buy or even gift new smartphones.

After receiving the new handsets, they need to re-setup the phone with apps that keep them preoccupied. Thus, celebrating this day by downloading some useful apps for the handsets can be a good idea.

Another important task that can be performed on this day is organizing apps on the mobile screen. Often in the hustle of work, the home screens of mobiles get saturated; this can be a good day to organize all the apps on the phone, creating folders for games, sports apps, and other similar apps.

The other major idea is to create an app on this day. Developing applications to simplify tasks is never going to lose its importance. Hence, there are countless ways to celebrate this day.

At last, national download day was introduced to celebrate that peak time of the year when the app downloads are at their highest. Owing to it, there is no doubt that apps will constantly keep on evolving and improving.

Notable stats to mark the importance of the day

Over the years, apps have rapidly grown in popularity. Today, Apple believes that over 20 million registered iOS developers create apps for the App Store. It is believed that Google Play Store has more users than that of the App Store.

In all, there are over 5 billion mobile users around the world. With the availability of 2.6 million apps from Android and 2.2 million apps from iOS, downloading apps has increased worldwide.

Here are some notable facts about the apps-

  • Google Play has noted about 76 billion downloads while the iOS App Store has noted 30 billion downloads
  • About 87% of the mobile users have stated that they download three or more apps a year
  • Amongst the popular ones, games are the most downloaded apps, with early 7 in 10 people downloading games
  • The biggest market for Google Play Store is in India, while that for iOS download is China
  • Nearly half of the world’s app downloads take place in China
  • By the end of 2023, the mobile app revenue is expected to reach USD 935 billion
  • Free apps contribute to gain 98% of app revenue
  • Facebook owns most of the top popular apps in the world
  • As far as July 2020, 4.4 million apps were available for download in the Apple App Store, and as of June 2020, 2.96 million apps are available for download on the Google Play Store.
  • 21% of millennials open an app 50 times each day.
  • 49% of people open an app 11 times each day.
  • Smartphones are responsible for 70% of US Digital Media Time.
  • On average, a smartphone user opens ten apps per day, which makes it 30 apps each month

Conclusion

The mobile apps industry is lucrative and continually growing in the world. As smartphones are advancing utilizing virtual and augmented reality, so will the apps.

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