What is an App? Understanding Software Applications

Open your phone right now and count the icons on your home screen. Banking, food delivery, messaging, shopping, maybe a game or two. Every one of those icons represents an app, and together they’ve quietly become the primary way most people in India interact with the internet. But what exactly makes something an “app,” and how is it different from the software you use on a laptop or the websites you browse? Understanding this distinction matters, especially if you’re studying how businesses build and sell through mobile platforms.

Defining an app: more than just an icon on your screen 🔗

An app, short for “application,” is a type of software built to perform a specific task or set of tasks on an electronic device. This could be a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. Unlike an operating system, which manages the device as a whole, an app is designed for a narrower purpose: booking a cab, editing a photo, tracking expenses, or placing an order for groceries.

What makes apps distinctive is their focus. A word processor helps you write documents. A ride-hailing app helps you book a cab. Each app is purpose-built, and this specialisation is exactly what makes apps easy to use even for people with limited technical knowledge.

From desktop software to the app economy 🔗

The idea of “applications” isn’t new. Desktop computers have run application software for decades, think spreadsheets, accounting tools, and design programs. What changed the game was the arrival of app stores. When Apple launched the App Store in 2008, followed shortly by Android’s equivalent, it created a centralised marketplace where developers could distribute software directly to millions of users. This shift, often called the “app economy,” turned apps into one of the fastest-growing segments of the digital industry.

In India, this growth has been especially dramatic. The country’s app download growth rate has vastly outpaced markets like the United States, driven by cheaper smartphones and expanding mobile data access. India is now among the largest smartphone markets globally, with hundreds of millions of active users downloading apps across categories like social media, gaming, and shopping every year, according to industry data on India’s app market.

Types of apps you’ll come across 🔗

Not all apps are built the same way. Depending on how they are developed and where they run, apps generally fall into a few categories.

Native apps 🔗

Native apps are built specifically for one operating system, either Android or iOS, using languages the platform understands, such as Kotlin for Android or Swift for iOS. Because they’re designed for a specific system, native apps can directly access device features like the camera, GPS, and contacts, which makes them fast and responsive. Most large retail and banking apps you use daily, such as your bank’s mobile app, are native apps.

Web apps 🔗

A web app isn’t installed on your device at all. It runs inside a browser and simply resembles an app through its design. According to the Nielsen Norman Group’s research on mobile applications, web apps are essentially mobile-optimised webpages, while native and hybrid apps are downloaded and installed through an app store.

Hybrid apps 🔗

Hybrid apps sit between the two. They are built using web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript but are wrapped in a native shell so they can be installed like a regular app and listed on app stores. This approach lets developers write code once and deploy it across both Android and iOS, reducing development time and cost.

Progressive web apps (PWAs) 🔗

A newer category, PWAs behave like native apps (they can work offline, send notifications, and be added to a home screen) while technically remaining websites accessed through a browser. They offer a middle ground: lower development cost than native apps, with more app-like functionality than a standard website.

Apps and the rise of app-based commerce in India 🔗

For students of e-commerce, apps matter for a specific reason: they’ve become the default storefront for retail in India. Shopping platforms like Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra, and a growing wave of quick-commerce players increasingly route the bulk of their transactions through apps rather than mobile browsers or desktop websites.

This shift is closely tied to India’s digital payments infrastructure. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI), built by the National Payments Corporation of India, has become deeply embedded in how apps process transactions. Annual UPI transaction volume grew from roughly 2 crore transactions in FY 2016-17 to over 24,000 crore transactions in FY 2025-26, an almost 12,000-fold increase over a decade. This kind of seamless, in-app payment experience is a big reason shopping apps have overtaken desktop websites for everyday purchases.

Retail’s shift toward apps is also visible in broader e-commerce numbers. India’s e-commerce share of overall retail is projected to rise from around 6 percent to as much as 11 percent by 2030, with small and medium enterprises fuelling a large share of this growth, many of them selling directly through marketplace apps rather than building their own websites. Quick-commerce apps promising ten-minute grocery delivery have added another layer to this trend, particularly in India’s smaller cities.

Why businesses build apps instead of just websites 🔗

An app gives a business direct, repeated access to a customer in a way a website often can’t match.

• Push notifications: Businesses can alert users about sales, order updates, or price drops without needing them to open a browser.
• Personalisation: Apps can track browsing and purchase history to recommend products, similar to how a regular in-store salesperson might remember your preferences.
• Faster checkout: Saved addresses, cards, and UPI IDs mean fewer steps between “add to cart” and “order confirmed.”
• Offline functionality: Native and some hybrid apps can let users browse catalogues even with patchy internet, a meaningful advantage in many parts of India.

These features explain why retail businesses that once operated only through websites have invested heavily in app development, even though building and maintaining an app costs significantly more than running a website.

Apps, software, and websites: clearing up the confusion 🔗

These three terms often get used interchangeably, but they aren’t the same thing. Software is the broadest term, covering any set of instructions that tells a computer what to do, including operating systems, apps, and even the code running a website’s backend. An app is a specific type of software designed for a focused task, usually with a user-facing interface. A website, by contrast, is a collection of linked web pages accessed through a browser and doesn’t need to be installed at all.

The overlap comes from web apps and PWAs, which blur these boundaries by behaving like apps while technically being websites. For a business, choosing between building a website, a web app, or a native app usually comes down to budget, how often users are expected to return, and how much device functionality (like camera or location) the service actually needs.

What do you think? 🔗

What do you think? Given how much of India’s retail activity now happens through apps rather than browsers, do you think smaller retailers without the budget for native app development are at a real disadvantage? And as progressive web apps continue to improve, could they eventually close the gap between the convenience of a native app and the low cost of a website?

References

1. https://buildfire.com/app-statistics/
2. https://www.businessofapps.com/data/india-app-market/
3. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/mobile-native-apps/
4. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2257087&reg=3&lang=2
5. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/logistics/our-insights/the-great-unbundling-of-indian-e-commerce-msmes-and-the-direct-to-consumer-revolution