What Will It Take to Reduce the App Gap?

Excerpt

Right now you may be reading this editorial on your phone or tablet. Today we often work, play, plan travel, chat, read, bank, dine, or shop with the help of a mobile application (app). Consumers can browse from over 4 million Apple and Android mobile apps in an ever-increasing number of lifestyle categories.1 For adult users, the estimated average time spent on mobile digital media has increased from approximately 20 min per day in 2008 to close to 3 h per day in 2015.2 For those around to remember, our relationship with mobile technology began in 1973 with the first mobile phone. Weighing in at about 2.5 pounds and costing close to $4,000, the early adopters incurred hefty monthly fees and costs for minutes used. Thirty-four years later, Apple introduced the increasingly ubiquitous iPhone. These and other key milestones in the mobile digital media story have shaped an accelerating trajectory of ready access to information, instantaneous communication and unprecedented global connection. …