Editorials

In 2020 mobile gaming was estimated to have generated approximately $79.5 billion in revenue. A huge number, yet only 0.01% of published mobiles apps successfully make a return on investment. To put that into perspective, an app developer is more likely to be hit by lightning than publish a profitable mobile game [01]. Ouch (literally). So, what’s gone wrong?

Quick App is a new concept of light, native-like mobile applications, or mini-apps, that do not require installation and run directly on the operating system, offering high performance and a rich user experience. The Quick App concept is different to both native mobile apps and web apps, yet it also complements these other approaches perfectly.

The other day I stopped to think about how quickly we can get, or do, almost everything nowadays. We have a random question, we search for the answer on our phones. We want to see our family on the other side of the world, we can simply video call them. We want the world to know that we’ve done something, we make a post on social media. We can order food from one of our favorite restaurants in town and get it still warm in a matter of minutes. We can even schedule a date with a complete stranger in a matter of minutes - how crazy is that?

The society that we are living in is one where the barriers of speed are being challenged everyday by technology, and this will only keep increasing in the upcoming years.

In September this year, I attended AthTech'21, a conference on sports data and technology. There, we discussed systems interoperability and user (fans) engagement through technology. During one of the sessions, I presented an idea to attract the spectators' interest in concrete athletics events like throws and jumps. I developed a simple but functional prototype on a quick app.

The rationale behind quick apps has been well argued by Christian Paterson in his article “10 reasons for quick apps” [1]. The world is increasingly getting digital. More and more services are being digitized, products and devices are getting connected to the Internet, and modern challenges for our society such as the COVID pandemic demonstrate what the power of digitization can do to address them.

At Olisto, we share the vision on the opportunities of quick apps.

Society is experiencing a remarkable period of digitalization yet consumers are tired of app hunting, developers are frustrated by app publication experiences, small businesses, local governments and NGOs often can’t even afford an app presence, app marketplaces are jealously guarded, devices are awash with unused apps … and still everything, everwhere is being pushed online. Quick apps offer a 10 point life ring in these rising tides.

Quick apps are the perfect complement in the new era due to their easy discoverability, direct access, immediate response, and growing capabilities that are on par with traditional native apps.

This transition from traditional to lighter apps is likely to attract both users and developers. Users only expect smooth and appealing products/services rather than understanding how the underlying technology works. Developers can create quick apps quickly thanks to its easy-to-use framework.

Searching app stores and downloading mobile apps is a barrier to what we want to do now. Quick apps offer an alternative to the traditional mobile app dynamic by enabling an in-the-moment experience that delivers immediacy of value. One of the core challenges to developing a quick app ecosystem in Europe is achieving quick app support on as many devices as possible. Yet despite this challenge, there are multiple reasons why European businesses and organisations should be interested in nuturing this ecosystem today. The OW2 Quick App Initiative, is a neutral, open source forum to collaboratively foster this opportunity in Europe, for Europe.