With mobile phones becoming more affordable and accessible, and with greater penetration of the smartphone, it is but natural to expect that there will be an uptick in mobile app development.
With more new phones being manufactured daily and a new model being released every two weeks, it is widely expected that the total number of devices will cross the 12 million mark by the end of the current year. As mobile phones are becoming more affordable, it is witnessing better market penetration, and this has led to a spurt in mobile app development.
Here’s what you can expect in mobile app development for the current year
Cross platform and cross device development – With increasing penetration of smartphones, companies have been able to target wider demographics through custom built apps. So for the current year, you can expect more stand alone app development, with iOS based apps at the higher end and see an uptick in both hybrid and native apps. At the last count, there were nearly 1.4 million apps, jostling for a share of the marketplace and the trend in app development for the current year stays the same with one change, you can expect more apps to feature both cross platform and cross device functionality.
IOT development – With increased usage of peripherals to communicate, manage and transact in real time, it has become evident that smartphones and mobile applications can be utilized to manage real life events. With increasing IOT applications hitting the market, from Google glass to SIRI, one can expect more advanced IOT apps for the current year, with an increased focus on interactivity.
Developer tools – As companies try to compete with each other, the lifecycle of mobile apps is being trimmed down further in order to increase their competitive edge. However, this had resulted in various issues cropping up from lousy UI to lack of proper coding. In order to offset this, you can expect more advanced developer tools which can enable you to cut down on the time it takes you to design a mobile app to the time it hits the market. While it still remains to be seen what the current year brings, at the least you can expect advanced development kit with pre-built functionality.
Enterprise apps – With more companies opting to use mobile apps in order to reach out to their target market better and to interact with their customers, you can expect a few advanced enterprise apps for the current year. In addition, most companies tend to be a tad paranoid when it comes to their security; they can opt for enterprise apps to monitor and regulate intra-office communication and help create a secure environment in the process. All of that is only possible with enterprise apps, so expect the demand for the same to increase the current year as well.
Location based apps – with increasing consumer awareness, and higher smartphone penetration into the market, you can look forward to companies utilizing your current location and providing you with a list of local offers, from food to clothes. The neat thing about location apps is that it syncs with your smartphone, understands your preferences and sorts through the various offers before highlighting the ones that you may probably be interested in. For the current year, you can expect more location based apps to prop up.
Storage – When it comes to data storage has always been an issue, while companies can afford their own server or pay for premium cloud services and store their data, the fact remains that for most users, they would have to make do with free services like Google which offers limited storage. But you can look forward to more storage based apps for the current year, with advanced functionality such as linking it up with Google drive and enabling data migration.
Cloud services – With cloud computing taking on a big way, mobile developers have started utilizing the same for faster development of mobile apps, and for debugging as well. But bottom line, the fact that cloud services can provide you with anywhere, anytime access makes them one of the top headliners for the current year. You can expect more advanced features to become part of the cloud services including testing.
Security – As mobile apps are being used widely for various verticals including banking, security for mobile apps has become paramount. With the increased use of mobile apps in the day to day transactions, it is imperative that the mobile companies build in the required security to avoid any breach of the same. For example, given the security breach last year, designing banking apps have become slightly different as they require a special feature to be added on when developing the app. This is to provide the banking app with an additional layer of security. Apart from this, companies that utilize enterprise apps to streamline their business operations, enable new protocols to ensure that their data remains secure and safe from any breach.
As more mobile apps hit the market as more companies coming up with innovative mobility solutions, security for mobile apps will continue to be an issue of concern for the foreseeable future. The neat thing about apps being developed these days is the built-in adaptability which makes it easier to add on security features, so you can expect more advanced security features to be released as part of new product launches for the current year.
These are some of the current developments in the field of mobile app development that you can look forward to, for the current year. And with the current trends holding, you can expect more of the same for the following year as well, with security coming into sharp focus.