Apps international – the savvy marketer’s guide to the global mobile experience

Eran Kinsbruner compares app usage in different countries and discusses the factors that marketers need to be aware of when developing and testing their own apps for varying markets.

That mobile devices are everywhere should come as no surprise, though the extent to which we mean everywhere is still impressive. A few facts from the UN’s telecommunications agency demonstrate just how widespread mobile technology has become:

• More people around the world now have cell phones than ever had land-lines
• There are more than 6.8 billion phone subscriptions, nearly as many as there are people in the world
• In wealthier countries, penetration rates exceed 100 per cent because of multiple subscriptions per person. But even in less economically developed countries, there is still an average of 89.4 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants

And the surge towards mobile has not stalled yet, with Cisco forecasting that 5.4 billion people will have mobile phones worldwide by 2020.

Utilising the data

The increasingly pervasive usage of mobile devices of course not only impacts how we interact with the surrounding world, but how brands need to interact with us as consumers.

Marketing and user experiences on mobile devices is far more nuanced than simply acknowledging that your website needs to be optimised for mobile, or that you may need to create some kind of app. The nature of the internet makes it internationally accessible. The way that people use your company’s apps, access its websites and engage with the brand is incredibly varied, and must be accounted for to ensure that each individual has a great user experience regardless of which country they may be in at that moment.

So what are the main things marketers, as well as quality assurance (QA) and test & development teams need to consider when taking a global and geographically nuanced approach to mobile app testing and development?

Devices and OS

Perhaps the best place to start your mobile testing and development strategy is to understand what devices and operating systems consumers are actually using around the globe and, in turn, ensuring your customers’ digital user experience. Tapping into real customer analytics helps inform a brand’s marketing and test and development teams to make better decisions in improving mobile app quality.

Any marketing professional can probably tell you that Apple and Samsung are the biggest mobile device brands in the world with the iPhone and Galaxy device series, respectively. However, that does not tell us which iPhone or Galaxy phone is the most popular, and it doesn’t tell you if either of these is actually the most popular device in your company’s target market.

It’s true that the most recent iPhones – particularly the 6 and now 7 models – should be considered as part of any digital strategy regardless of country, along with Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and S7 series. Of course, with the notable exception of the Note S7 following the model’s global recall due to battery issues.

However, it may be less obvious that Google’s Nexus 5 is also considered an essential testing device in all North American and most European countries; that three Motorola phones are among the top ten most important devices in the Brazilian market; and that in China, half of the essential devices, including the top two, are in fact those from local manufacturers Huawei and Xiaomi. And, if your consumers are in the more budget-sensitive Indian market, the importance of developing apps for iPhones drops significantly, with different Android OS devices holding 90 per cent of the market. However, this year’s more price friendly iPhone SE should not be overlooked as part of your digital strategy, either.

Background apps international and interruptions

Your company’s app will never exist in a vacuum on a user’s devices. There will always be dozens of other apps on a mobile device competing for processor power, battery and storage. At any given time, there will be apps running in the background on devices and the notifications, such as messages and calls, which can interrupt a consumer using your app. This means that it will always be important to understand what applications users in different regions are most likely to be using and how it will affect your own.

According to recent Monthly Active Users (MAU) rankings, the apps to be aware of can vary a lot across regions. In the Social Applications category, for example, WhatsApp was among the top four most used apps in the UK, Canada, Germany, Australia and Brazil, but didn’t even crack the top ten among US users. Not too surprisingly, both Facebook and Facebook Messenger appeared in the top four most used social apps across these six countries.

However, based on geography, the most localised app categories were retail ones. While Amazon and Amazon Shopping are the most commonly used shopping apps across the US, UK, Canada and Germany, Brazilian and Australian consumers preferred local companies. But one area where all six countries were consistent was in the Media and Entertainment category, where YouTube was the most used mobile application.

It’s important that brands pay attention to these usage figures, rather than the superficial download stats. As Amir Ghodrati, senior manager of Marketing Insights at App Annie said: “When testing how other apps running in the background will impact your app’s performance, it’s essential to test the right apps across devices, regions and categories. It’s not enough to rely on downloads, since apps no longer available in the app store and device-specific pre-installed apps can impact the user experience.”

Internationally mobile

Mobile devices are by their nature . . . well . . . mobile. Whether that means that your users are likely to be travelling and using your app in particular countries, or whether you are hoping to service consumers in specific and different markets, ensuring a high-quality digital user experience will require a nuanced understanding of customers’ app usage habits, across geographies.

As digital innovation continues to drive enterprise business, a high-quality user experience becomes all the more important. That’s why the better you are able to understand and mimic your consumers’ real-life user environments, the better you can prepare your apps for them, in turn making sure your app does not needlessly crash or stall and keeps consumers coming back to use it again and again.