Untethered Healthcare

On most cell phones, data usage represents thirty percent of average daily use. On an iPhone, data represents seventy percent of average daily use. Apparently, as a smartphone platform is able to support richer applications and app distribution becomes nearly frictionless, people’s usage patterns change. Or do they? This interesting slide deck from Pinch Media shows that most iPhone apps are essentially disposables –  less than five percent of the users of a typical app are still using it thirty days after download. The  sticky mobile apps are the basics: Web surfing, email, music and SMS together make up fifty two percent of daily use. What about those hundreds of thousands of apps in the app store and the millions of downloads? They represent only three percent of daily use for most users.

Clearly we are still in the “irrational exuberance” stage of mobile app development with people throwing everything against the wall to see what will stick. The vendors and carriers are encouraging all this experimentation because it helps drive use, but the economics for small developers building apps on speculation are still marginal. As for the buzz about smartphones replacing PCs and laptops, does anyone really do serious document creation on a 3.5 inch screen?

So what does it take to make a mobile app sticky? Mobility changes how people interact, collaborate, locate each other and transact business.  For the next generation of sticky mobile apps, look to Asia where smartphone use patterns are three to four years ahead of the US. The main focus there appears to be using smartphones phones as a payment vehicle and using highly optimized local search to facilitate transactions. This is in line with what I hear from custom mobile application developers who say the bulk of their business is e-commerce related. So one element of stickiness is “follow the money.”

On the mobile healthcare front, even though many of us expect smartphones to play a major role in wellness, I believe the  early, rapid growth in mHealth applications may occur in developing countries with SMS-based systems like this one from the non-profit FrontlineSMS. This central communications management system for rural healthcare runs on a laptop, uses $10 recycled cell phones, and is already helping save lives. It is sticky because it improves workflow in a fundamental way. It saves countless miles of walking and motorbiking by rural healthcare workers to follow up with patients and update their status. It allows a hospital with a catchment area of 250,000 people to track and manage their care more efficiently.

Your thoughts on making mobile apps sticky?