Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 17, Suppl. 1, pp 853-859, 2019 Copyright © 2019 Trakia University Available online at: http://www.uni-sz.bg ISSN 1313-7069 (print) ISSN 1313-3551 (online) doi:10.15547/tjs.2019.s.01.140

MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS

N. Angelova*

Faculty of Economics, Trakia University, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

ABSTRACT The development of mobile technologies and Internet connectivity has a beneficial effect on the creation of diverse mobile applications related to different spheres of life. The time when people used their phones only for making phone calls passed away and nowadays every one of us has a small computer in his pocket that provides unlimited opportunities for training, business and entertainment. The purpose of this work is to present some of the most commonly used mobile applications that are designed to facilitate business communication, financial operations, staff and customer management. The main mobile technologies, operating systems and features of mobile applications are described. A survey about the usage of mobile technologies and applications is conducted and the results are presented.

Key words: mobile technologies, mobile communications, Android, iOS, application stores, survey

INTRODUCTION connected with these devices. In modern life We live in a world full of devices from a new each of us carries in his pocket or a purse this generation and technological solutions that small device having the power and have the main task to facilitate our daily lives functionality of a computer. It has the potential and routine and this also reflects on the way of to be our personal assistant, reminding us of thinking and working. It was not so long ago appointments and tasks, creating different when mobile phones were devices that allowed documents and sharing them with colleagues, us to make phone calls and to connect with managing the appliances in our home and others when we were out of our homes and just many other opportunities that we cannot even walking or travelling. We are witnesses of an imagine. extremely rapid development of mobile technologies over the last decades, and mobile This work aims to make an overview of some phones have become more accessible to the mobile applications that can be used for average consumer, including more services for business purposes and presents the results of a messaging, listening to music, playing games, survey about the usage of such applications. taking pictures and all kind of entertainment 1. MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES (1). There is no unambiguous definition of mobile The development of the Internet and the technology, but according to (2) it can be transition from to wireless mobile described as a part of technology that involves networks also required the transformation from mobility, uses communication infrastructures, mobile phones to . Now every protocols, and portable devices used for company working in the area of mobile cellular communication and allows users to technologies and producing smartphones is perform various tasks flexibly in terms of time looking to meet the endless demands of and place. As can be seen these definitions consumers whose lives are almost entirely define mobile technologies from a different ______perspective - the hardware features of different *Correspondence to: Nadezhda Angelova, devices and the solutions that Faculty of Economics, Trakia University – Stara determine technology as mobile. Some of the Zagora, Bulgaria, [email protected] technologies used in modern smartphones

Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 17, Suppl. 1, 2019 853

ANGELOVA N. include the use of high-speed internet, Several mobile operating systems are mainly biometrics data of fingerprint and face used on the market today, such as Android, scanning for greater protection and security, iPhone OS / iOS, Samsung, BlackBerry, NFC (Near Field Communication) payments, Windows. Some of them are not smart cameras to track and analyze objects, interchangeable among the devices. This flexible electronics applicable not only to means that Apple iOS can’t be run on Android curved screens, but to the devices as a whole. phone and vice versa.

1.1. MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEMS According to market surveys worldwide, the A major part of mobile technologies are also main leader of mobile operating systems is related to the creation and development of Android OS that is installed on most mobile operating systems (OS). By definition, smartphones, while iOS market share is this is an OS that is designed to go on mobile concentrated in countries that mainly produce devices like tablets, phones, PDAs and other and sell devices that support this OS. The portable devices. Its main features are market share 2019 of the most popular mobile hardware management and various additional OS for some technologically developed applications that can be installed. This includes countries like US, UK, Japan, China, Germany multimedia features, Internet connectivity, and Russia compared with Bulgaria is keyboard, touch screen, navigation, camera presented in Table 1 (4). and many more (3).

Table 1. Mobile Market Share 2019 Country Mobile OS/ US UK China Japan Germany Russia Bulgaria iOS 55,07% 49,81% 24,1% 71,9% 28,38% 26,6% 13,9% Android 44,61% 49,42% 74,6% 27,81% 70,67% 72,32% 85,22% Windows 0,1% 0,45% 0,05% 0,03% 0,38% 0,56% 0,45% Samsung 0,07% 0,18% 0,01% 0,43% 0,1% 0,27% BlackBerry 0,05% 0,05% 0,02% 0,01% 0,03% Unknown 0,03% 0,02% 0,81% 0,06% 0,03% 0,02% Playstation 0,01% 0,01% 0,01% 0,01% 0,39% 0,02% 0,03% 0,03% 0,08% 0,03% Unknown 0,02% 0,06% 0,05% Other 0,04% 0,04% 0,01% 0,02% 0,05% 0,11% 0,03%

There are some open source mobile operating Mobile communications are conventionally systems that are alternative to Android, such as divided into generations marked with a digit KaiOS, , PureOS/, and "G" (G stands for generation) - 1G, , which are based on Linux, Ubuntu or other , , 5G. This division is conditional, open source projects. As an open source OS because most generations unite several they are designed to run on any , standards of data transfer. Infrastructure of but for some of them manufacturers produced mobile operators consists of creating a cellular specific smartphones. The main idea is network of partially overlapping radio-range developing a free zones called cells. This is the main reason, why from that replaces Google services mobile technologies are often called cellular. with its own and promises to not track users or sell their data to advertisers like Google (5). The first generation 1G mobile communications uses an analogue voice-only 1.2. MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS connection. This generation is connected with The development of mobile technologies, the first mobile phones. operating systems and devices is related and follows the development of mobile The second generation 2G standard is Global communications. They allow users to Service for Mobile Communications (GSM), communicate with others located in different though not the only one. The start of 2G is in places without using any physical connections 1991 and the data transfer rate is 9.6 kbit/s. like cables and wires (6). Eight years later, the GPRS standard (also known as Intermediate Generation - 2.5G),

854 Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 17, Suppl. 1, 2019

ANGELOVA N. which allows the use of high-speed mobile  Tizen - Tizen Store Internet as well as EDGE for mobile TV, is  Sailfish OS - Store also integrated into the GSM standard.  Ubuntu Touch - OpenStore

The third generation 3G mobile It could be surprisingly and interesting to most communications started in 2002. It includes 3 of non-professional users that besides of standards - UMTS, WCDMA and CDMA2000 official distribution channels there is a huge and provides speeds from 384 kbit/s to 2.4 number of their alternative stores Mbit/s and enables new services such as video that could be grouped by platform, chat, radio and TV reception, and so on. manufacturer, location and mobile operator. They can offer different type of revenue share The fourth generation of mobile model, not the one (70/30) that is supported by technologies 4G is a set of standards for the and and pay for a broadband Internet access from mobile phones certain number of downloads that will make and tablets. Novelty is the voice transmission the applications more popular. These new over the Internet through the VoIP protocol. alternative app stores will play a major role in The most serious contender among the the distribution of mobile application and will currently developed standards is LTE (Long- change their marketing strategy. Term Evolution). Another competitor is the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Some of the alternative mobile channels are Access (WiMAX) technology already listed below (8): available from many broadcasters around the  List of Android App Stores - Google Play, world, mostly wireless. , GetJar, , Mobile Store, SlideMe,1Mobile; The new standard 5G will provide gigabit speeds exceeding the existing speeds. In  Top App Stores for iOS - App Store, addition, a minimum ping will be maintained , GetJar, Appland; for several milliseconds. The standard will be  Cross-platform App Stores - Amazon energy-efficient, which will allow small-device AppStore, GetJar, Store, connectors to be built in, bringing users closer Appszoom, Appolicious, NexVa, to "internet gadgets” and the concept of Kongregate; Internet of things. As a result of the  Manufacturer-specific App Stores - implementation of the standard to the global Samsung Apps, LG Smart World, Huawei; network and the increased capacity of the  Top China App Stores - MyApp networks, it will be possible to include (Tencent), 360 Mobile Assistant, Xiaomi virtually all possible equipment, including App Store, Baidu Mobile Assistant, Xiaomi household appliances, such as running teapots Game Center, Huawei App Market. and lamps, cars, traffic lights, and weather Each year the number of developed and sensors (7). downloaded apps grows. Statista (9) reported 2. MOBILE APPLICATIONS that in 2017 consumers downloaded 178.1 Every mobile application (app) is software that billion mobile apps to their connected devices, is designed to be installed on a mobile device. for 2018 their number grown to 205.4 and the Typically, these apps are small and have less forecast for 2022 is that the downloaded apps features than those designed for computers and will reach up to 258.2 billion. laptops. The Figure 1 shows that for the first quarter of 2.1. MOBILE APP STORES 2019 Google Play is the biggest mobile Each mobile app is created for specific OS and applications store with a collection of 2 100 can be downloaded from a special location 000 apps, followed by App Store with 1 (app store), depending on the mobile OS. The 800 000 (10). main official app stores are: 2.2. MOBILE APPLICATIONS FEATURES  Android – Google Play; Nowadays the number of existing mobile  iOS – App Store; applications expands tremendously and almost  Mobile - Store; every day developers upload new ones to the  BlackBerry 10 - BlackBerry World, markets, but not every one of these apps has a Amazon Appstore long life of usage.

Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 17, Suppl. 1, 2019 855

ANGELOVA N.

Figure 1. Number of apps available in leading app stores as of 1st quarter 2019

 Security is an extremely important feature for According to a survey (11), the main reasons any mobile application that includes both why users delete mobile apps from their phones security data transfer over the network and are: App wasn’t used (32%), App didn’t fulfill protection from direct access to the mobile needs (26%), Lack of phone storage space (25%). device itself; The large size of apps is related to their ability to  Individualization or personalization that be used in offline mode when there is no internet includes features to create personalized connection. This is an extremely important content and meet the user’s needs, depending feature for an application because users are not on the way he uses the app. limited and can use it anywhere. A great example of such application is Google Translate, which 3. MOBILE APPLICATIONS FOR allows downloading different packages for the BUSINESS language that the user wants to translate. First of all, it is important to highlight the underlying reasons that show why business needs There are many factors that make mobile mobile applications (14). Some of these reasons applications successful (12, 13). Some of the are related to: most important features that a mobile application  Visibility of the business to customers at any should possess are: time and place;  High-quality product that combines good  Creating a direct marketing channel - design and functionality. This means that the providing information and reminders, product main purpose of a successful mobile app is to brochures and customer service with just a be able to solve a specific problem for users; few clicks;  Viral effect - embedded social media sharing  Added value for customers who are loyal to features that provide free channels for the business – digitalizing the program for advertisement; collecting points and rewards through  Versions for different mobile operating developing a company mobile application systems (Android, iOS or others). Reaching will result in more downloads for the app; more platforms and devices will provide more  Building a brand for recognition - the popularity, users and product independence; mobile app can increase the consumers’  Analysis options that track which features are awareness of your brand; most commonly used and allow timely  Improving customer engagement - the optimization, debugging and troubleshooting; ability to include features for quick and easy  Free applications are preferred over their access to your business; alternative paid ones and it allows to be used  Being innovators and progressive in by a wider audience; thoughts and actions - although mobile  A successful marketing plan that includes applications for small businesses are rare, good mobile app promotion across app stores creating them is a way to distinguish from sites and social media;

856 Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 17, Suppl. 1, 2019

ANGELOVA N. others and be different and keep pace with Finance, Food, Medical, Maps & Navigation and new technologies. many more.

Undoubtedly, every business needs an Business applications can also be classified and application that is convenient and easy to use by grouped according to the objectives and the customers for all the things they do every day functions of the business organization and the - communication, online shopping, booking main tasks performed by the manager and the hotels, tickets, and etc. From employees. another perspective, each company also needs a variety of mobile applications to manage its The main activities of each company are related business from anywhere and anytime. to task managing, planning and organizing of events and meetings, communication with Typically, mobile apps are categorized according employees, partners and consumers. to the purpose of their use, such as Business, The most popular apps in Business category in Communication, Education, Entertainment, the two major app stores (Google Play and App Store) are presented in Table 2. (15, 16):

Table 2. List of popular and recommended mobile apps for business in Google Play and App Store Subcategory Google Play App Store Office suits OfficeSuite, Docs To Go™ Free Documents (Office Docs), Office Suite, SmartOffice, Polaris OfficeSuite & PDF editor Office - Free Docs, Sheets, Slides + PDF Scanning tools Clear Scan, Fast Scanner Genius Scan - PDF Scanner, Scanner++ PDF Document Scan Job search, hire staff, job Glassdoor - Job Search, Salaries & Indeed Job Search, CareerBuilder Job interviews Company Reviews, JOB TODAY: Search, Snag - Jobs Hiring Now, Find Jobs, Build a Career & Hire Glassdoor - Jobs & Salaries Staff, HireVue for Candidates, JobSwipe ™ - Search Millions of Jobs Employee Scheduling When I Work Employee Scheduling, Workday, HoursTracker: Hours and 7shifts Employee Scheduling, Pay, Crew Messaging and Scheduling Humanity - Employee Scheduling, Paylocity Mobile Video conferencing tools Hangouts Meet, TrueConf Free 4K ZOOM Cloud Meetings, Cisco Video Calls, GoToWebinar, Webex Meetings GoToMeeting – Video Conferencing & Online Meetings Planning, Task lists AWS Events, Teamup Calendar, Trello — Organize anything!, Asana: Tasks: Todo list, Task List, Reminder organize tasks & work, HotSchedules Automated expense Invoice Maker: Estimate & Invoice Expensify: Receipts & Expenses, management, Invoices, App, SAP Concur, Invoice 2go Invoice & Estimate, payments Invoice 2go — Professional Invoices QuickBooks Accounting, Square and Estimates Point of Sale (POS)

In the Finance category, the main both for Android and iOS smartphones and recommended applications are connected with devices. money transfer and payments, mobile banking applications, investment applications. Some of the problems, reported by the users and reviewers of some of these apps are: annoying Security is very important feature of all these adds offering paid versions, long time for loading applications due to operating with money and the app, not very easy and convenient interface stocks so users should be aware and work and features, some of the apps are developed carefully with them. only for one of the mobile OS and some do not work appropriately for one of the OS, do not For Bulgarian customers there are some support language versions, do not meet the applications for operating bank institutions like characteristics of the mobile devices. Bulbank mobile, Raiffeisen ONLINE, CCBank Mobile App, DSK Smart, My Fibank, available

Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 17, Suppl. 1, 2019 857

ANGELOVA N.

Table 3. List of popular and recommended mobile apps for finance in Google Play and App Store Subcategory Google Play App Store , Money TransferWise: send, receive & spend Venmo: Send & Receive Money, transfer money globally, JPay, PayPal: Mobile Cash, TransferGo: Money Transfer, WesternUnion US Money Transfer PayPal Mobile Cash: Send and Request Money Fast Budget, Bills & Credit PNC Virtual Wallet, ePayments: Mint: Personal Finance & Money, Score, Savings wallet & bank card, Monthly Budget Twine: Easy Saving & Investing, Planner & Daily Expense Tracker, Digit: Save Money Effortlessly, Wallet, Monefy Goodbudget Budget Planner, PNC Virtual Wallet Invest in Stocks, Crypto, MetaTrader 4 Forex Trading, Robinhood: Invest. Buy. Trade, ETFs Webull: Invest Smart, Trade Free - Stash: Invest. Learn. Save., Stocks, ETFs., Investing.com: E*TRADE: Invest. Trade. Save. Stocks, Finance, Markets & News, MSN Money- Stock Quotes & News Mobile banking Bank of the West Mobile, TCF Bank, Simple - Better Banking, TCF Bank, Santander Bank US Chase Mobile®, U.S. Bank, Citizens Bank Mobile Banking

4. SURVEY One of the goals of this article is to present the applications. The survey shows that most of results of a survey exploring the usage of the respondents (68%) searched and found the mobile applications. right application from the relevant platforms - Google Play and App Store, 15,7% were The questionnaire is created by Google Forms informed by friends, 11,8% relay on user’s (https://forms.gle/LRT7KPvAFBCxcQwK8 ) posts and reviews in social media sites and and contains 12 questions. It was mainly forums. disseminated via social media and the main target groups are students trained in some of Based on the survey, it can be concluded that a the specialties of Trakia University (Faculty of large proportion of consumers use their mobile Economics and Faculty of Agriculture). devices (smartphones and tablets) primarily for communication, including phone calls, social The survey includes 51 respondents and the media, messaging, and entertainment - games, results shows that they were primary female - music, movies. 60%, while male represent about 40%. Most of them are students (full - time and part-time) so This statement is also confirmed by the fact it is not unusual that 35.3% are between 20-30 that users are constantly using mobile social years old, followed by the group of 30-40 networking applications, messaging and e-mail years (27.5%), and the smallest proportion are services, and rarely or never take advantage of consumers between 60-70 years (3.9%). training and educational applications. Some of the examples of the most popular apps among All respondents have a (98%), and respondents are , Instagram, 2% have both devices - a smartphone and a Messenger, , YouTube, Zedge. tablet, with the most used mobile operating system Android (88.2%) and those with iOS The major mobile business applications that represent 11.8%. are mentioned are mainly related to mobile banking and it seems that business apps appear This is an expected result, which also coincides to be associated mainly with mobile banking. with the statistics presented in Table 1 that in There are no examples of applications for Bulgaria devices with Android OS has the accounting, finance, and human resources largest share. management, which could be a result by the fact that most of the respondents are students Concerning the number of applications and a very small part run their own businesses. installed on the users’ smartphones, 31% of Concerning which features are essential for the them pointed more than 12 applications and mobile applications, users prefer the app to be 11.8% are those with between 4 and 6 free, to provide data security, application 858 Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 17, Suppl. 1, 2019

ANGELOVA N. stability, be comfortable and easy to use, do 3. Viswanathan P., What Is a Mobile Operating not include ads that are annoying to users, and System?, 2019, also the app to have an available version for https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-mobile- different mobile OS. operating-system-2373340, last access 24.07.2019 CONCLUSIONS 4. Statcounter, Mobile Operating System Market Mobile devices are an integral part of our lives Share Of America, 2019, and it seems like everything we possess is http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market- inside them behind the screen. It has no longer share/mobile/united-states-of- been the only mean for connecting and talking america/#yearly-2019-2019-bar with people who are far away from us. It is our 5. Prakash A. Open Source Mobile OS personal assistant who wakes us up in the Alternatives To Android, 2019, morning, reminds us of important meetings, https://itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives- captures moments with our loved ones and android/, last access 24.07.2019 beautiful pictures, controls the appliances in 6. Javatpoint, Introduction to Mobile our home, manages finances and business, Communication, https://www.javatpoint.com/mobile- finds everything we care about and helps us communication-introduction, last access present it in appropriate form. 24.07.2019

The question is whether we are able to take 7. Mobile communications, https://mobile- advantage of all of its capabilities through the devices.webnode.com/istoriya-na-mobilnite- various mobile apps that appear every day. telefoni/mobilni-komunikatsii/, last access 24.07.2019 What are the main features of these apps that 8. Dogtiev A., App Stores List (2018), 2019, attract users and whether they need a campaign https://www.businessofapps.com/guide/app- to promote and advertise them? stores-list/, last access 24.07.2019

Many mobile applications have also a desktop 9. Statista, Annual number of global mobile app or cloud based versions that make them downloads 2017-2022, https://www.statista.com/statistics/271644/wo extremely convenient with the ability of rldwide-free-and-paid-mobile-app-store- synchronizing data when permanent internet downloads/ access is provided from anywhere and at any 10. Statista, Number of apps available in leading time. Many of them are easy and convenient to app stores 2019, use, and visualization and navigation are (https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/nu tailored to the capabilities of mobile devices mber-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores/ and their displays. 11. Panko R., Mobile App Usage Statistics 2018, Essential for the development of mobile 2018, https://themanifest.com/app- applications will be the adoption of the new development/mobile-app-usage-statistics- generation mobile communications, including 2018, last access 24.07.2019 the 5G standard that will provide a much faster 12. Whiz, Kakvo pravi edno mobilno prilozhenie connection and many more new opportunities uspeshno, https://www.whiz.bg/blog/kakvo- for consumers. One of the factors that pravi-edno-mobilno-prilozhenie- determine the direction and the future in the uspeshno., last access 24.07.2019 development of mobile applications and their 13. Ittechsols,Some Essential Characteristics of impact on business models of different Mobile Applications, 2012, companies is the growing number of connected https://ittechsols.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/s smart devices, part of the concept of the ome-essential-characteristics-of-mobile- Internet of Things that can be controlled applications/ through mobile applications on smart phones. 14. Haselmayr M., 7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App, REFERENCES https://www.allbusiness.com/7-reasons- 1. TigerMobiles.com, Evolution of the mobile business-needs-mobile-app-19179-1.html, last phone, access 24.07.2019 https://www.tigermobiles.com/evolution/#zer 15. App Store, oPhone, last access 24.07.2019 https://apps.apple.com/us/genre/ios- 2. IGI Global, What is Mobile Technology, business/id6000, last access 20.07.2019 https://www.igi- 16. Google global.com/dictionary/mobile-strategy- Play,https://play.google.com/store/apps/categ business-solution/18956 , last access ory/BUSINESS?hl=en_US, last access 24.07.2019 20.07.2019

Trakia Journal of Sciences, Vol. 17, Suppl. 1, 2019 859