Since the beginning of time running a business has been difficult.  There are monetary risks, time constraints, and the daunting task of keeping up with constant changes in both business and consumer behavior.  Now, in 2012, what moves businesses and consumers forward is mobile technology.  The effect that mobile apps have on the business market have most likely not even begun to be clear.  One thing that is becoming apparent is that consumers are ditching their traditional computers for mobile devices.

ComScore, a company that specializes in measuring trends in e-commerce, released data suggesting that the percentage of people using apps has surpassed users who use traditional browsers.  The data that was released says that 44.9 percent of users used apps in November of 2011 versus 44.4 percent of users who used a traditional browser.  This marks the first time that ComScore has seen app usage overtake browser usage.  In the past few years App usage has trailed browser usage by just a few percentage points, until now the browser has reigned supreme.

A mobile analytics firm, Flurry, had similar finding in June of 2011 when they reported that the amount of minutes spent on apps overshadowed the amount of minutes spent on browsers.  While this does not mean that desktop browsing is obsolete it does show that consumers’ interest in apps continues to grow.  It also shows that consumers are showing a major interest in purpose driven mobile software.

These intriguing numbers show us the overall trend of mobile usage.  As the numbers continue to grow it is not ridiculous to believe that an app may be the most important asset to your business.  When you think about all of the amazing things a business app is good for like advertisement, coupons, sales, etc.  You can begin to see how important this software can be to your company.

Mobile apps have more than just consumer benefits as well.  Companies are able to deliver business specific apps to their employees in an inexpensive manner.  These apps have the potential to aide your employees in business specific tasks giving them the ability to complete their work in a time and cost efficient manner.

There has arguably not been a more revolutionary breakthrough for businesses in the past few decades.  Especially when you think of how many benefits mobile applications have on both the business and consumer sides of things.  Unlike other single faceted forms of media and technology that businesses have had to rely on in the past, apps are an all in one bundle made specifically to deliver targeted material.

If you have not already designed an app for your business there is no better time than now.  As mobile technology progresses at a rapid rate those businesses that are able to keep up will surely be the ones that flourish.  Even if you do not know the first thing about app development, you can learn.  With so many functions and the overall popularity of mobile devices it is quite possible that moving forward a mobile application may be your business’ best asset.

On The GoWARE provides mobile app development and training services for Apple iPhone, iPad, Google Android, and BlackBerry platforms.