App news roundup: October 21

If you’re keen to make your small business app design as successful as possible, taking a few minutes to catch up on what others are doing well – in addition to what’s changing in the wider app industry – can be a really helpful source of inspiration. We’re here to help you get caught up with our five-minute round up of this month’s app news.

New industry report shows mobile apps are booming

There’s never been a better time to invest in a mobile app for your small business new data shows, with the app industry overall booming. The Partner Benchmarks Report from Adjust confirms demand is hitting highest ever levels, with businesses flocking to advertise on mobile apps. Adjust estimates that spending on mobile advertising will account for three-quarters of all digital ad spend in 2021.

In addition, m-commerce continues to mature, with more installs being recorded for mobile commerce driven apps. This is especially pertinent for small businesses, who can integrate online stores and mobile shopping carts with their app to create a new revenue stream.

If you run a bar, restaurant, café or grocers, there’s more good news, with food delivery app installs increasing by 19% in 2020 and a further 21% in 2021.

Tesco app and website hacked

In a timely reminder to ensure that your app and website is as secure as possible in the run up to the busy holiday season, the supermarket giant Tesco has confirmed that it faced attempts to interfere with its systems this month, taking its website and app down for several hours over the weekend.

The problem has been described by Tesco as a deliberate disruption. It impacted several key app and site functions including order tracking, placing orders and amending existing orders. The outage left many shoppers frustrated and saw some moving to rival supermarkets.

New App Store guidelines revealed

Following a legal battle with developers in the USA, Apple has issued a new set of guidelines for its App Store. The court challenge means that Apple has now agreed that app developers can communicate with their app users to inform them of alternative payment methods outside of the app in question. In addition, app developers can request the name and email address of users downloading their apps – but must not make this information a term of being able to use the app.

Android apps test on Windows gets underway

Test have now begun at Microsoft to allow Android apps to be used on Windows. A total of 50 apps are included in the trial, with trial participants putting apps such as Amazon Kindle, the Washington Post and Lego Duplo World through their paces on Windows-powered devices.