MGI Research conducted a survey of over 200 organizations around the world to paint a holistic view of the current state and the future of mobile apps. This document outlines the summary of the results.

1. Mobile Strategies
State of Mobile Apps 2012 Survey Highlights
Pragmatic Adoption of Open Standards June 11, 2012
Summary: As mobile devices proliferate and the drumbeat for mobile apps grows louder, executives responsible for
mobile apps strategy today are challenged to determine the pace and trajectory of apps development. MGI Research
recently concluded a survey of over 200 organizations from around the world to determine the State of Mobile Apps in
2012. The results of this in-depth study provide insights into mobile apps strategies, best practices, technical and
spending priorities, and the current and expected adoption rate of mobile standards like HTML5 and JavaScript. This
Executive Report contains MGI’s quick-take analysis of the survey data compiled on June 5, 2012.
By surveying over 200 organizations ranging in size of less than 2,500 employees
Key Issues up to companies with over 100,000 employees and analyzing budget priorities,
How are user strategies for
mobile apps evolving?
technical preferences, and the number of applications in planning, development,
What areas of mobile apps are and production, a clearer picture of the state of mobile apps emerges. Looking at
gaining? a single issue in isolation, like user adoption of HTML5, does not tell the entire
What are practical user strate- story, and in fact can lead to expensive, time-consuming mistakes. The data indi-
gies for open standards in mo- cate that while adoption of mobile standards is rising fast, companies are moving
bile apps?
How important are security, with equal speed to fill in the gaps of standards and are taking a very pragmatic
privacy, and mobile device approach to mobile apps strategies. It is critical for strategy and dev teams to
management to users’ mobile discount the hype, and take a realistic, comprehensive view of where mobile apps
strategies? are today and set a direction cognizant of the inevitable, fast changes occurring in
What are best practices for
this market. This report contains MGI Research’s quick-take analysis on data
developing and maintaining
mobile apps? compiled as of June 5, 2012, and spotlights how much and where companies are
How will mobile apps budgets allocating resources, the technological choices being made, and looks inside the
and resource investments mobile apps life-cycle, which contains some surprising insights.
evolve?
Budget Priorities
Survey Demographics
221 Total number of par-
As Figure 1 indicates, almost 48% of users surveyed indicate that investment in
ticipants multi-platform tools will increase in the next 12 months – making it the number
59% Described them- one budget priority.
selves as “decision mak-
ers” Figure 1 - Mobile Apps Technical Budget Priorities
63% Represented North
American compa-
nies/locations
16% Represented EMEA
(Europe, Mideast & Afri-
ca)
21% Represented
Asia/Pacific companies
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Disclaimer: Information is furnished on an as is basis. No warranty, written or implied as to the accuracy of the data. Not responsible for typographical or repro-
duction errors. Not an offering to buy or sell securities of any kind. Does not represent investment advice in any form.
© 2012 MGI RESEARCH, LLC www.mgiresearch.com +1 888 801 3644

2. State of Mobile Apps 2012 – Survey Highlights
June 11, 2012
Mobile security and privacy are a close number two priority, and when combin-
ing the responses of Investment Increasing and Investment About the Same, near-
ly 100% of users expect to allocate the same or larger amounts of their budget on
mobile security and privacy. Integration with legacy systems ranked third in the
category of increased investment. Interestingly, the top five priorities as a whole
are areas where standards are relatively weak, particularly mobile security, priva-
cy, and integration. And the top priority – investment in multi-platform apps dev
tools, is an area that, at least theoretically, should be less relevant because of
standards. Spending indicators alone, however, don’t tell the whole story.
Technical Priorities
Among organizations that perceive themselves to be Mobile Experts and Innova-
Figure 2 - Mobile Apps Technical Priorities
About MGI Research
MGI Research is an independent
industry research and advisory firm
focused on disruptive trends in the
technology industry.
Through subscription research, advi-
sory engagements, industry studies
and benchmarks, MGI Research helps
clients identify opportunities for re-
ducing IT costs and minimize tech-
nology risks. MGI Research analysts
work closely with user organizations
to model ROI and TCO tradeoffs,
benchmark operational metrics and to
create practical strategies for new
initiatives such as mobile, virtualiza-
tion, SaaS and cloud computing. MGI
Quant models and indices use quanti-
tative methods to help technology
investors and industry executives
make more informed and timely
go/no-go investment decisions, opti-
mize valuations and generate new
ideas. tors, the majority view using standards like HTML5 and JavaScript as critical to
their success.
MGI analysts have at least twenty
five years of experience. MGI Re-
search founders and senior team
The vast majority of all organizations – approximately 85%, view greater use of
members have backgrounds from standards as Important, Very Important, or Most Important/Critical to their mo-
companies such as Gartner, bile strategy. At the same time, the single most important technical priority is
Soundview and Morgan Stanley. improving mobile app performance – over 70% of respondents rated better per-
formance as Very Important or Most Important/Critical. The use of native device
For additional information, reprints or
to schedule a confidential consulta- functionality ranks highly – just over 60% of dev teams today view it as Very or
tion, call +1 888 801-3644 or visit Most Important/Critical. A surprise in the data is the relatively low emphasis on
www.mgiresearch.com managing BYOD – Bring Your Own Device. In spite of all the hype among
press and analysts, BYOD is not a priority at least when it comes to mobile apps
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Disclaimer: Information is furnished on an as is basis. No warranty, written or implied as to the accuracy of the data. Not responsible for typographical or repro-
duction errors. Not an offering to buy or sell securities of any kind. Does not represent investment advice in any form.
© 2012 MGI RESEARCH, LLC www.mgiresearch.com +1 888 801 3644

3. State of Mobile Apps 2012 – Survey Highlights
June 11, 2012
dev strategies and plans. When taking the budget priorities into consideration
with the technical directions, it appears that standards are viewed as an important
general direction and users like the basic tenements of standards. At the same
time, few companies today are betting their mobile apps success uniquely on a
standards-only approach. Use of multi-platform tools and the prioritization of
things like improved performance, security and privacy, and use of native device
functionality all underscore the pragmatic reality of mobile apps dev projects to-
day.
Mobile Apps Life-Cycle Issues
The mobile apps life-cycle question contains some surprising insights. Develop-
ing mobile apps is fast, especially when compared to traditional software devel-
opment.
Figure 3 - Mobile Apps Life-Cycle Experience
Most companies typically spend 6 months or less developing mobile apps, and
they view the development costs as attractively low. However, apps have longer
active lives than one might suspect. Most companies maintain their mobile apps
almost continuously, and they support apps for a year or longer. Far from being
disposable, companies report continuously maintaining mobile apps as a vehicle
for delivering innovation and improved service levels. Somewhat surprisingly,
the larger the company, the more likely it is to have relatively faster update cy-
cles. As companies grow in size, what we see is they seem to rely on mobile
apps as an important tool for gaining competitive advantage.
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Disclaimer: Information is furnished on an as is basis. No warranty, written or implied as to the accuracy of the data. Not responsible for typographical or repro-
duction errors. Not an offering to buy or sell securities of any kind. Does not represent investment advice in any form.
© 2012 MGI RESEARCH, LLC www.mgiresearch.com +1 888 801 3644

4. State of Mobile Apps 2012 – Survey Highlights
June 11, 2012
ROI Expectations
From an ROI point of view, 27.7% of respondents indicated an Above Average
(4.7% Outstanding and 23% Excellent) Return on Investment from their mobile
app projects. That is above the 21.5% of respondents that indicated a Below Av-
erage or a Disappointing ROI from their mobile app investments. Roughly half
(50.8%) of companies surveyed indicate an average ROI from their mobile apps.
Figure 4 - Mobile Apps ROI Experience
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Disclaimer: Information is furnished on an as is basis. No warranty, written or implied as to the accuracy of the data. Not responsible for typographical or repro-
duction errors. Not an offering to buy or sell securities of any kind. Does not represent investment advice in any form.
© 2012 MGI RESEARCH, LLC www.mgiresearch.com +1 888 801 3644

5. State of Mobile Apps 2012 – Survey Highlights
June 11, 2012
Business Focus
Mobile apps are viewed as key tools to differentiate the business. Increasing cus-
tomer engagement, reinforcing brand values, and providing better customer ser-
vice are key business drivers. The benefit of mobile apps is seen as a driver of
competitive advantage – but we’re not yet seeing mobile apps being used for
lower costs or increasing margins, although at MGI Research we believe that day
will come.
Figure 5 - Mobile Apps Business Drivers
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Disclaimer: Information is furnished on an as is basis. No warranty, written or implied as to the accuracy of the data. Not responsible for typographical or repro-
duction errors. Not an offering to buy or sell securities of any kind. Does not represent investment advice in any form.
© 2012 MGI RESEARCH, LLC www.mgiresearch.com +1 888 801 3644

6. State of Mobile Apps 2012 – Survey Highlights
June 11, 2012
Application Type Focus
Customer service-oriented apps are by far the most popular apps in development,
Figure 6 - Mobile Apps Focus
with companies of all sizes making it the number one type of app in development,
especially among the largest companies.
Marketing apps are the second most popular overall, again with larger companies
planning more than their smaller peers. Manufacturing, supply chain, operations,
and even HR-oriented apps have yet to take off. The concentration of develop-
ment efforts around customer service, marketing, and sales underscore the size of
the mobile apps opportunity both within (e.g., B2E) and beyond (B2B and B2C)
the four walls of the enterprise.
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Disclaimer: Information is furnished on an as is basis. No warranty, written or implied as to the accuracy of the data. Not responsible for typographical or repro-
duction errors. Not an offering to buy or sell securities of any kind. Does not represent investment advice in any form.
© 2012 MGI RESEARCH, LLC www.mgiresearch.com +1 888 801 3644

7. State of Mobile Apps 2012 – Survey Highlights
June 11, 2012
Early Days for Mobile Apps
While the hype and expectations around mobile apps are reaching fever pitch, the
reality is that we’re very early in the evolution of mobile apps. Sixty-five percent
of users report having five mobile apps or fewer in the planning stage of devel-
opment. About seventy percent indicate they have five or fewer mobile apps in
development, and nearly half of all respondents indicated that they have no B2E
(business to employee) apps in production.
Funding for mobile projects is coming from across the enterprise, and in fact 10%
Figure 7 - Mobile Apps Financial Sponsors
of organizations report that 10% of mobile apps projects are funded directly from
the executive suite.
Although IT is increasingly the department responsible for deploying and main-
taining mobile apps, today is it largely the business itself that is funding projects.
We believe the growth in mobile business apps, whether it is B2C, B2B, or B2E,
is just beginning. From a technical point of view, users like the concept of stand-
ards and are quickly absorbing them. And yet, the immaturity of standards and
relative inexperience of companies building mobile apps combined with real-
world business pressure to quickly deliver apps and ensure adequate security,
privacy, and performance is driving mobile apps development teams to be very
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Disclaimer: Information is furnished on an as is basis. No warranty, written or implied as to the accuracy of the data. Not responsible for typographical or repro-
duction errors. Not an offering to buy or sell securities of any kind. Does not represent investment advice in any form.
© 2012 MGI RESEARCH, LLC www.mgiresearch.com +1 888 801 3644

8. State of Mobile Apps 2012 – Survey Highlights
June 11, 2012
pragmatic in their approach. Considering user adoption rates (high) of mobile
apps, and the perceived time to market and cost advantages of mobile vs. tradi-
tional software applications, mobile apps development is likely to become a focal
point for delivering innovation and competitive differentiation. As organizations
take the time to analyze the possibilities for innovation and competitive ad-
vantage delivered via mobile apps, we expect to see number of mobile apps to
rise dramatically.
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Disclaimer: Information is furnished on an as is basis. No warranty, written or implied as to the accuracy of the data. Not responsible for typographical or repro-
duction errors. Not an offering to buy or sell securities of any kind. Does not represent investment advice in any form.
© 2012 MGI RESEARCH, LLC www.mgiresearch.com +1 888 801 3644