Mobile phone flight mode liberation: these apps are waiting to benefit

Once upon a time, beautiful stewardesses would remind passengers countless times to "please turn off your mobile phones". This scene would appear many times, and some people even used this method to "chat up" with stewardesses.

Recently, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Spring Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Sichuan Airlines and other airlines have announced that passengers can use smartphones with "flight mode" on board. This means that mobile phone addicts finally don't have to say "goodbye" to their mobile phones when flying.

At present, major airlines have not opened the WiFi function, and only allow mobile phones to be used in "flight mode", so some mobile apps commonly used by users cannot be used. However, "the sun rises in the east and the rain falls in the west", and apps that need to connect to the Internet cannot benefit, but there must be some apps that do not need the Internet that can benefit. After the mobile phone can be used in "flight mode" on the plane, which mobile apps will benefit?

1. Various reading apps that can be read offline

Representative products: QQ Reading, iReader, Migu Reading, Shuqi Novels, Baidu Reading, Panda Reading, etc.

When the use of mobile phones is prohibited on airplanes, there is often a wide variety of reading materials. For example, airlines will distribute newspapers and magazines for free, and the airport terminal will also provide various books for users to purchase. Some users will also bring their own books to read on the plane.

Nowadays, you can bring your mobile phone on the plane, so you can download the books you want to read offline in advance, and then browse them at will. Compared with other applications, the advantages of reading applications are:

First, it is small in size but high in capacity, and can be downloaded quickly. A novel of 1 million words may only be 3 or 4 MB, and users can download the content offline before the plane takes off, which is very convenient and does not need to worry about consuming a lot of traffic. A small e-book may only be 300 or 400 KB in size, which is only equivalent to a picture sent by a user during a WeChat chat.

Generally, domestic flights last about three to four hours. Books larger than 400KB can definitely support users' browsing during the entire flight. Even for international flights lasting more than ten hours, a novel of about 2MB can satisfy users' reading needs for such a long time.

Secondly, it can be serious or lighthearted. There are a lot of works on various digital reading platforms. Yuewen has 9.6 million works covering more than 200 categories, and the digital reading content on iReader exceeds 500,000 books. Users can choose serious content or light-hearted novel content, and have enough choices.

***, low power consumption. Compared with video and music applications, mobile reading apps consume less power and can support users to read for a longer time. Currently, mobile phone charging is not available on airplanes, and there are no clear regulations allowing users to use various power bank devices on airplanes. During long-distance flights, it is time to reflect the battery life of mobile phones. Of course, if the mobile phone app itself consumes less power and can also be entertaining, it would be even better.

2. Various mobile music and mobile radio apps

Representative products: NetEase Cloud Music, Kuwo Music, Kugou Music, Lizhi, Himalaya, etc.

Even though the current data charges are shockingly low, there are still many people looking for WiFi everywhere to save money. The data charges are not cheap enough to allow them to use them at will. After all, the monthly rental fee of more than 100 yuan is still high for ordinary users.

In order to save data traffic, users will download their favorite songs, radio stations and other audio products in a WiFi environment in advance so that they can listen to music at will even when there is no WiFi. After all, the frequency of use of music applications is still quite high, and it is the fifth most used application among netizens.

Since they are all downloaded, users can of course listen to music and radio at will even in airplane mode. In addition, with the popularization of audiobook applications and audiobook functions, many users also like the audiobook function, so auditory applications similar to mobile phones will also be used during flights.

3. Video Apps

Representative products: iQiyi, Tencent Video, Youku, etc.

In 2017, short videos stole part of the limelight from video apps, but this did not affect the influence of video apps in the minds of users at all. With the improvement of the self-production capabilities of various video websites, the self-production content of video websites has become more and more mature, and its influence is also gradually increasing.

Users' needs for short videos are live streaming and fragmented needs. However, during the flight, short video content is not enough to support users' three or four hours of entertainment needs. On the other hand, live streaming is not available.

However, mobile video apps can download content in advance. A short movie is about 1.5 hours long, so users only need to download two or three movies. For users who love TV series and variety shows, they can also download multiple episodes of content at once.

However, mobile video apps also have drawbacks. Unless the user's storage space is as large as 128GB or 256GB, 64GB is not enough to cache several 1080P movies or TV series, because the user's phone also has WeChat, photos, videos, other application caches and other data, so 64GB of real usable space is not much. Of course, it is no problem to cache only one or two movies.

Also, if the user's flight frequency is high enough, he or she may forget to cache the video. If the video is not cached, the user will not be able to browse it. For lazy people, they may not bother to use the pre-caching method.

Therefore, a more ideal way might be for users to interact with the mobile assistant and let the mobile assistant help users download the apps, while also charging the phone.

Compared with tablets, mobile phones are much more convenient to carry, and more people own them. According to IDC's Q3 2017 data, global tablet sales fell 5.4% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2017, from 42.3 million units in the same period last year to 40 million units. Nowadays, the size of mobile phones is basically 5.5 inches or larger, which is basically enough for video browsing in fragmented scenarios. In addition, carrying products such as iPad mini will directly increase the weight of users' backpacks.

4. Standalone game apps that don’t require an internet connection

Representative products: Fruit Ninja, Talking Tom 2, Fishing Master, Temple Run, etc.

According to data from app market research firm Sensor Tower, users spent approximately $38.5 billion on Apple’s App Store in 2017, of which approximately $30 billion was spent on games, accounting for 77.9% of the App Store’s total revenue, making it the App Store’s biggest profit point.

In the airplane mode scenario, networked games are definitely out of the question, but some stand-alone game apps that don't require an internet connection will have a great chance to be released. In fact, there are not many pure stand-alone games now, and most of them require users to be online to use them. Only when online users make payments can game developers make money. Stand-alone game apps that don't require an internet connection will be the beneficiaries of the airplane mode scenario.

Compared to an Internet-connected environment, airplane mode is indeed less fun. However, there are still many things you can do on your phone without an Internet connection.

Currently, in-flight WiFi is not available, so flight mode will take advantage of the situation where WiFi is not available on the plane. The slower the WiFi is, the more these applications will benefit. In another case, in-flight WiFi is turned on, but the network is not good, which is no different from flight mode.

In airplane mode, social apps such as WeChat, Weibo, Momo, e-commerce apps such as Tmall, JD.com, and Suning.com, and short video live streaming apps such as Kuaishou, Miaopai, and Meipai will all be affected.

Fortunately, the flight mode scenario is not long in the user's entire usage time.