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State of Play of Mobile Government Apps on Google Play Store

Authors: 
Abdelbaset Rabaiah
ISSN: 
0000000091950263
Journal Name: 
International Journal of Computer and Engineering
Volume: 
13
Issue: 
5
Pages From: 
1
To: 
10
Date: 
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Keywords: 
Mobile applications, e-government, apps, app store.
Abstract: 
e-Government mobile applications provide an extension for effective e-government services in today’s omniconnected world. They constitute part of m-government platforms. This study explores the usefulness, availability, discoverability and maturity of such applications. While this study impacts theory by addressing a relatively lacking area, it impacts practice more. The outcomes of this study suggest valuable recommendations for practitioners-developers of e-government applications. The methodology followed is to examine a large number of e-government smartphone applications. The focus is on applications available at the Google Play Store. Moreover, the study investigates applications published on government portals of a number of countries. A sample of (15) countries is researched. The results show a diversity in the level of discoverability, development, maturity, and usage of smartphone apps dedicated for use of e-government services. It was found that there are major issues in discovering e-government applications on both the Google Play Store and as-well-as on local government portals. The study found that only a fraction of mobile government applications was published on the Play Store. Only (19%) of apps were multilingual, and (43%) were developed by third parties including private individuals. Further analysis was made, and important recommendations are suggested in this paper for a better utilization of e-government smartphone applications. These recommendations will result in better discoverability, maturity, and usefulness of e-government applications.