For most of the last decade, the answer to "how do we reach customers on mobile?" was straightforward: build an app. The App Store and Google Play were the primary discovery channels for new software. Having an app was a signal of seriousness.
That is changing. The question is no longer whether to build a mobile app. It is whether building a standalone app is the right answer at all.
The Attention Problem
App stores are saturated. According to Statista, as of 2024 the Google Play Store hosts over 3.5 million apps. Apple's App Store hosts over 1.8 million. Average user behaviour has consolidated: most people use between five and seven apps regularly and discover few new ones organically.
Adjust's Mobile App Trends Report 2024 found that 25% of apps downloaded in a given month are used only once. For enterprise and B2B applications, which lack consumer marketing budgets, the discoverability challenge is even more acute.
Statista, "Number of apps available in leading app stores," 2024. Available at statista.com.
Adjust, "Mobile App Trends 2024." Available at adjust.com.
The Platform Shift
Three developments are reshaping what "mobile" means for businesses building digital products in 2026.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). PWAs deliver app-like experiences through the browser, including offline capability, push notifications, and home screen installation, without requiring a download. Google's Lighthouse data shows that well-built PWAs achieve load times significantly faster than comparable native apps on low-bandwidth connections. For emerging markets where connectivity remains inconsistent, this is material.
Super apps and embedded experiences. In Africa specifically, platforms like WhatsApp, and sector-specific platforms in financial services, are becoming primary surfaces for business interaction. Embedding a service experience within an existing platform where users already spend time often outperforms a standalone app on adoption metrics. Capitec's integration of everyday banking into a single, frictionless mobile interface, rather than a feature-bloated app, is frequently cited as a model for African digital financial services.
Capitec Bank Annual Report 2023, available at capitecbank.co.za.
Microsoft Power Apps mobile. For internal business applications (field service, inspections, approvals, operational data capture), Power Apps delivers cross-platform mobile experiences that connect directly to existing enterprise data without a dedicated mobile development team. The build-and-deploy cycle is measured in days, not months.
What This Means for Decisions in 2026
Native app development remains the right answer for consumer products where a rich, device-native experience is genuinely differentiating: immersive media, complex real-time interactions, hardware integrations. For most other use cases, the combination of PWA for external users and Power Apps for internal users delivers faster, cheaper, and more maintainable than a bespoke native build.
The future of mobile is not a single format. It is the right format for the specific user, context, and use case.
