M-commerce, or mobile commerce, already very popular before 2020, skyrocketed last year during the global pandemic and an acceleration in the use of mobile devices. According to economists, we even sprang forward by 2 or 3 years in the space of 12 months, the first-ever leap of such magnitude.
This is what emerges in 3 key figures from the findings of an App Annie study of the mobile market in 2021:
In 2021, mobile internet traffic amounted to 55.56% of total internet traffic worldwide, well over half. Smartphones have thus become the reference device for end users.
This rapid evolution has also led to a phenomenal rise of all collaborative applications, like Teams, Zoom, etc. The chart below speaks for itself: on a global scale, there was growth of 300% from Q1 2020 to Q4 2020. The European scene alone saw growth of 100% over the past year.
As for mobile trends in 2021, Forbes sums them up in 4 priority areas:
Regarding technology, the past year confirms the trends that had been shaping up over the preceding years. Application vendors are still trending away from stores (App Store, Google Play) by developing web-based mobile applications or PWAs rather than native apps.
The technical chain of mobile consumption is made up of 3 elements: the user, the application on the device, and any remote servers where the application gets content.
Each of the 3 elements can be monitored with separate solutions:
The same logic applies to PWAs/web-based applications. The only difference is the technology which is used to monitor the application on the device, as SDK is not relevant for web-based apps. In this case, Real-user monitoring (RUM) instruments the web components that are on the application to provide insights into the how well the application is operating.
The SDK and RUM see into 100% of sessions. To distinguish between them (apart from their consecrated use on either web or native apps), it is important to consider diagnostics and ease of deployment.
The ideal solution for mobile monitoring must be able to:
Ekara has the ability to monitor your mobile application on real devices, with data centers across Europe and in China. It is also possible to install dedicated server farms and project to your infrastructures.
The second technology that we have to offer, Cloud Android, consists of a fleet of ARM servers at 14 measurement points around the world. Again, it is also possible to use Cloud Android within your data center.
For even greater customization, we have a third proposal, where you can select the device of your choice. This is the way to go when you want to measure a B2B application associated with a particular kind of device, as is the case with parcel tracking apps or ticket-checking applications on public transportation.
Ekara thus accommodates every type of physical or virtual device.
Discover in the video how to create a mobile user journey with Ekara Studio.
Ekara:
To find out more, we invite you to view or review the replay of the webinar on mobile application monitoring!
References
App Annie: https://www.appannie.com/fr/go/state-of-mobile-2021/
Forbes: Pandemic Potential: Four App Development Trends In A Post-Covid-19 World
Ekara: ekara.ip-label.com