Applications are rapidly becoming an intrinsic part of consumers’ daily lives. It’s hard to imagine booking a taxi, ordering a pizza, applying for government services, or streaming movies without first firing up an application. And as the often-quoted movie line goes, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’.
Indeed, the latest research from Cisco, The App Attention Index 2023: Beware the Application Generation, shows that for 62 percent of consumers, expectations for digital experiences are far higher now than they were two years ago. People have zero tolerance when they encounter a problem using digital services, and they’re actively looking to ditch poorly performing applications.
Spare a thought for which consumer demographics spend more time on their smart devices, and it is easy to see why these shifts in attitudes and behaviors are most pronounced amongst younger consumers, aged 18-34. This ‘Application Generation’ relied on applications to navigate through the pandemic — for their education, to embark on their careers, and to stay connected to friends — and now they’re using them, with great skill, to live, work and play in a hybrid world.
With their lives now so dependent on digital services, and with so many brands eager to cater to this demand, the Application Generation prides itself on using only the most innovative, intuitive, and secure applications. These users want each and every digital experience to enrich their lives, and they will hold to account any brand that falls short of this mark.
In the Middle East, where the average age of the population is relatively young, brands need to pay close attention to the ever-changing motivations and behaviors of millions of young consumers. And in particular, they need to consider these five key characteristics of The Application Generation:
Heavy utilisation of digital services
The Application Generation are avid users of digital services, evidenced in the fact that on average, consumers aged 18–34 use 41 different applications each month, compared to 30 amongst people aged 35 and above. These applications span everything from finance and healthcare, to entertainment and public services. This indicates their preference for engaging with brands via digital channels, and companies that fail to act, could soon find themselves irrelevant.
More mindful about use of applications
Young consumers’ heavy utilisation of digital services is juxtaposed by their growing mindfulness about what applications they engage with. 67 percent report that they are looking to control or limit the number of applications they are using or that they have on their device.
The Application Generation are constantly evaluating the relevance and value — or otherwise — of digital services, and they think hard before downloading new applications. They’re actively looking to rid themselves of a sense of ‘application clutter’ that has built up over recent years.
Most severely affected by bad digital experiences
When you consider just how integral applications are to the lives of younger consumers, it comes as no surprise that this cohort of new users suffer more deeply when they encounter a performance issue when using applications and digital services. The majority can think of at least one occasion in the last 12 months where a bad digital experience has affected their well-being. And if brands think that such failures are soon forgiven and forgotten, they’re in for a rude awakening.
Will punish any brand whose application doesn’t perform
These young consumers feel disrespected if they encounter a bad digital experience. Worryingly for brands, the Application Generation is most likely to take action against brands whose applications fail to meet their expectations. On average, they’ve deleted as many as seven applications as a result of bad digital experiences in the last 12 months, and 70 percent report that they’re now more likely to warn other people against using digital services that don’t perform.
Avid fans of innovation
Given that they have grown up in a constantly evolving and advancing digital world, the Application Generation is accustomed to innovation. This new breed of application user is constantly looking for the next evolution in applications and digital services. They always want to feel that they are pushing the boundaries in their use of applications and benefiting from the most cutting-edge technologies and experiences. That’s why 80 percent of them feel positive about the prospect of using Super Apps which combine multiple digital services into a single application.
For brands competing in an increasingly digital world, the stakes couldn’t be higher. They urgently need to ensure that they are able to deliver seamless digital experiences at all times. And this means equipping their IT teams with the right tools and insights to manage and optimize application availability, performance, and security.
It is for this reason that in recent years, we have seen application observability become essential to effective IT infrastructures. It provides IT teams with unified visibility across increasingly complex and dispersed hybrid application environments, and to rapidly detect issues and understand root causes.
In addition, by correlating application performance and security data with key business metrics, IT teams can prioritize those issues which pose the biggest threat to digital experience. The Application Generation is upon us and just as their behaviors and preferences spell success for brands that get it right, they will spell doom for those who don’t. The bar has been raised in terms of what digital experience must be, and those brands that fail to hit the mark risk alienating an entire generation of application users.
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