During the ?Mobile Apps: Creating Utility and Driving Downloads? panel, executives discussed how the mobile ecosystem has evolved over the past few years.  The panelists also discussed how mobile has changed the way users are consuming.

?There?s a tremendous amount of apps out there ? it?s a $10 billion dollar market and it?s growing exponentially,? said Evan Neufeld, chief marketing officer at Ground Truth, New York.

?There?s tremendous growth both in this country and outside this country,? he said. ?More people access the Internet through their mobile phones and mobile commerce is growing exponentially as well.?

Apps versus Web
Nowadays, many marketers who are looking to enter the mobile space are not sure if they should develop and app or a mobile-optimized site first.

However, it should not be about the mobile Web versus apps ? it is more about who the marketer?s target audience is and the way that they would like to access the content.

There are still a lot of feature phones out there and many users do not have smartphones, therefore marketers need to make sure that they are reaching as many consumers as possible.

App discoverability is an ongoing challenge for marketers.

Currently, there are more than 500,000 mobile apps within Apple?s App Store and not everyone is prominently featured on their What?s Hot page.

Therefore, marketers need to look at how to get consumers to download their apps and let their friends and family know about it.

?Discover for apps is a tremendous problem,? Mr. Neufeld said.

Apps, apps, apps
According to Scott Brady, senior vice president of digital analytics at Nielsen, San Francisco, reach is king.

Although reach is one key metric to look at, it is not the only thing that matters. The number of visits to an app and the time spent is as critically important.

In 2011, all major app categories more than doubled in unique audience size.

Small application categories such as photos ? think Instagram ? have been driving the growth.

The executive also said that the use of smartphones for mobile shopping has increased dramatically over the past year.

Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices to not only find the nearest location, but to also browse different products.

Users are constantly reaching for their mobile device while in-store to price compare.

Additionally, more brands and retailers are seeing the potential of mobile and are constantly looking at ways to incorporate mobile into their overall marketing mix to better target consumers.

For example, Amazon recently rolled out its Price Check app which helps consumers price compare products and find something they need at the lowest price.

?Mobile shopping activities are beginning to evolve,? Mr. Brady said. ?Mobile shopping activities are evolving from discovery to purchase ? it?s becoming much more dynamic.

?The most popular branded apps are focused on rewards, but branded apps also drive traffic to bricks-and-mortar locations. 

Final Take