Investigating Country Differences in Mobile App User Behavior and Challenges for Software Engineering

Mobile applications (apps) are software developed for use on mobile devices and made available through app stores. App stores are highly competitive markets where developers need to cater to a large number of users spanning multiple countries. This work hypothesizes that there exist country differen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on software engineering 2015-01, Vol.41 (1), p.40-64
Main Authors: Soo Ling Lim, Bentley, Peter J., Kanakam, Natalie, Ishikawa, Fuyuki, Honiden, Shinichi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
app user behavior
Comparative analysis
Data mining
Educational institutions
International
market-driven software engineering
mobile application development
Mobile communication
Requirements/specifications
Smart phones
Software
software ecosystems
Software engineering
Software packages
software product lines
Studies
survey research
User behavior
user requirements
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Mobile applications (apps) are software developed for use on mobile devices and made available through app stores. App stores are highly competitive markets where developers need to cater to a large number of users spanning multiple countries. This work hypothesizes that there exist country differences in mobile app user behavior and conducts one of the largest surveys to date of app users across the world, in order to identify the precise nature of those differences. The survey investigated user adoption of the app store concept, app needs, and rationale for selecting or abandoning an app. We collected data from more than 15 countries, including USA, China, Japan, Germany, France, Brazil, United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, India, Canada, Spain, Australia, Mexico, and South Korea. Analysis of data provided by 4,824 participants showed significant differences in app user behaviors across countries, for example users from USA are more likely to download medical apps, users from the United Kingdom and Canada are more likely to be influenced by price, users from Japan and Australia are less likely to rate apps. Analysis of the results revealed new challenges to market-driven software engineering related to packaging requirements, feature space, quality expectations, app store dependency, price sensitivity, and ecosystem effect.
ISSN:0098-5589
1939-3520
DOI:10.1109/TSE.2014.2360674