While apps have long played an important role in how we use our mobile phones, industry experts are stunned at how fast their usage is still managing to grow.
For the unfamiliar, apps – short for applications – is a computer program or piece of software purposefully designed to operate on a smart mobile device, such as a phone, tablet or watch. While there are now apps for laptop and desktop computers, the earliest apps were created to help streamline the world’s first smart phones.
In fact, it was Apple founder Steve Jobs who first created the idea of an app in the summer of 1983. Six months before the release of his first Macintosh computer, Jobs predicted a world where apps would come and go in fashion much like records or computer games. While he wasn’t wrong, he did instigate the evolution of a new digital distribution system.
For smartphone users, apps are now integral in going about our day to day lives. From social media, internet banking, navigation and even finding love – if you can think of it, there’s usually an app for it. While app usage is now at an all time high, is the arrival of the pandemic solely to blame, or are there other factors at play?
The original App Store was launched by Apple with 500 apps, meaning there is no ‘true’ first app. Nevertheless, as new varieties of smartphones were unveiled, different app clients were introduced. Depending on the consumer’s brand of phone, Google Play, the Amazon App Store, and Blackberry’s App World also gave more people the ability to enjoy various apps on their smartphones. It’s also worth mentioning that each app store has always had both paid and free apps from the very beginning, meaning premium and “freemium” content was always a big factor in appeasing users.
Today, apps are big business. In 2021 alone, more than two million different apps were launched around the world, with the average user spending 4.8 hours per day on their smartphone apps. Although the pandemic may have given app usage a push into a whole new stratosphere of popularity, it’s no secret that our digital habits were already on the uptick.
Forced indoors with little to do, many people inevitably turned to their smartphones as a form of boredom relief. In contrast, millions of offices and workspaces also shut down. In order to keep the workforce connected, video conferencing apps like Zoom and workplace project management apps such as Asana suddenly found themselves front and centre for people who may have previously never heard of them – let alone having to use them.
Although we live in an increasingly digital age, technology has also brought with it an extra set of distractions on top of whatever happens to pop up during our day to day lives. FaceTime, online shopping and even food delivery apps also contributed towards 2021’s notable rise in app usage. For everything we once did in person, there was an app to substitute it.
While not the ideal situation for many consumers, apps provided a means to bridge the gap as an emergency measure. While only time can tell if these habits are likely to stay, we’re betting that app usage isn’t likely to decrease in the near future.
SOS Phone Repairs are specialists in high-quality, cost-effective phone repairs, tablet repairs, and PC repairs, all backed with a six month warranty. Founded in 2015 in Coffs Harbour and now with over sixteen outlets located all over Australia, our primary driving factors remain the same: people and phones.
Whether it’s to get a few more years out of your trusted iPhone, to fix one up to sell, or to repurpose an old one as a gift, repairing a smartphone might just be easier and cheaper than you think. However, if you’re in the market for a new smartphone, SOS Phone Repairs also stocks a wide variety of refurbished handsets at a fraction of the cost of a brand new one. While each has been carefully restored to perform at their best, all refurbished smartphones purchased through SOS also come with a twelve month warranty, and can be purchased at any of our sixteen store locations.
If you are on the hunt for a quote, diagnostic, or even just some good old fashioned, friendly advice, please don’t hesitate to get in touch or give us a call today at SOS Phone Repairs.
