[mattschmulen]

As apps grow, and features increase there is always a pressure towards a "mega app” of many features and an opportunity for the "micro app” of focused features. The old adage of “Desktop apps are novels and Mobile apps are proverbs” may not hold as mobile matures, there is nuance.

Mobile applications are especially sensitive to this pressure of feature growth since the users are often interacting in short “mobile minute” spurts of need at a specific time and location ( of course not in all cases, youtube iPad engagement is much longer). The juxtaposition of large apps that support the desired feature and a small app that just does the one desired feature is where larger app stakeholders are trying to hold user base by providing the best of both words by splitting up apps and creating app ecosystems “constellations”.

Some things that are not discussed in this article that discounts the current state of mobile apps is the new integration/federation capabilities provided by mobile platforms such as deep-linking, custom actions and widgets.

Another interesting situation is how a “north star” or “keystone” app may fit into this by providing the highly valued "single sign on” authentication feature for an app ecosystem. I despise login screens and passwords fields in mobile and its Im happy to install a second app so long as you federate authentication.

Maybe in the end one app makes a product but two make a platform ( or maybe just skip the ‘app’ all together and make an API )