Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show and CNN, and the host of a tech talk radio show on SiriusXM. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored the following blog post.

Finding out about apps to boost your productivity while on-the-go is an increasingly important part of using your smartphone or tablet to better your business. While the default mail, calendar, and web browsing apps your device came equipped with are a good start, specialized apps often mean the difference between being able to work from a conference and having to wait to head back to your hotel. Whether you’re making a move in the mobile video space, trying to build a following on Twitter, or just organizing your digital life, apps can make a world of difference in your mobile productivity.

One often-overlooked feature of apps, however, is the ability to update them. Unfortunately, apps don’t update themselves—you have to manually install new updates. There are a variety of reasons we get behind in updating our apps: limited space on mobile devices, updates that require a WiFi connection, and even just forgetting to check for them. But there are some very good reasons to make sure you’re keeping your apps up-to-date.

1. Security

2. New features

Updates are for more than just fixing security holes. Often, entirely new features are added to apps when they’re updated. Sometimes these are relatively minor: user interface improvements, support for higher resolutions, new gestures and sharing options. But other times, these updates radically change how you will use and interact with the app. Flipboard’s major recent update added content from the New York Times, integration with Google plus, and an ability to browse YouTube channels that you follow the same way you browse your favorite publications.  Dropbox now allows users to automatically upload photos straight from your phone. Prezi, a presentation creation tool that works on Windows, Mac and iPad, has recently added new ways to quickly add and manipulate text when using the mobile version.

3. Bugfixes

Nothing is a bigger obstacle to mobile productivity than an app that crashes. As apps become more complicated, managing larger amounts of data and more social interactions, the chances of dastardly bugs sneaking in and ruining your experience is that much higher. With apps increasingly saving data to the cloud, if you’re working without an active Internet connection a crash might mean data loss. While updates that add features don’t come around every day, bugfixes do, and keeping your apps up-to-date is the best way to ensure that you’re covered.

Do you keep your apps up-to-date? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments, and let’s get a conversation started around updates!