WHY APPS?
In 2008 Apple introduced the App Store, and with that event a new world of digital publication and distribution was born. According to Forbes magazine, today there are over 9 million apps available to users around the world. In 2021, according to Statista, a total of 230 billion apps were downloaded worldwide. Apps have proliferated because they are convenient and downloadable to the user’s device enabling use off-line wherever the user may go. Although normally apps do not contain the range of information provided by a website, they do offer a powerful digital publishing platform delivering app creator’s content to their target audience. Using apps to distribute content provides:
- Always available user access to app content
- Off-line app sharing via Bluetooth or memory stick
- Cost effective digital publication and distribution of content
- A platform purpose built to look great on mobile phones
- Ease in navigation with intuitive touch-based access to content
- Rapid loading yielding an enhanced user experience
- A literacy development tool when audio and text are integrated
- A portal to access related content on the web
- Security to the user via distribution through Google Play store
